The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Google reforms its sexual misconduct rules

- By Michael Liedtke

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is promising to be more forceful and open about its handling of sexual misconduct cases, a week after highpaid engineers and others walked out in protest over its male-dominated culture.

CEO Sundar Pichai spelled out the concession­s in an email sent Thursday to Google employees. The note of contrition came a week after the tech giant’s workers left their cubicles in dozens of offices around the world to protest management’s treatment of top executives and other male workers accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct involving men. The protest’s organizers estimated about 17,000 workers participat­ed in the walkout .

“Google’s leaders and I have heard your feedback and have been moved by the stories you’ve shared,” Pichai wrote in his email, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It’s clear we need to make some changes.”

Google bowed to one of the protesters’ main demands by dropping mandatory arbitratio­n of all sexual misconduct cases. That will now be optional under the new policies. It mirrors a change made by Uber after the complaints of its women employees prompted an internal investigat­ion concluding its ranks had been poisoned by rampant sexual harassment.

Google will also provide more details about sexual misconduct cases in internal reports available to all employees. The breakdowns will include the number of cases that were substantia­ted within various company department­s and list the types of punishment imposed, including firings, pay cuts and mandated counseling.

The company is also stepping up its training aimed at preventing misconduct, requiring all employees to go through the process annually instead of every other year.

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