Several hundred Google employees and contractors met on Friday 26 April at a town hall, which was broadcast live so as to be seen by as many people as possible, to talk about the retaliatory action some employees are alleged to have suffered for having spoken out about ethical issues and working conditions. A complaint is understood to have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency which protects workers’ right to collaborative action. The town hall centred around the experiences of two women, who helped organise the 20,000-strong walkout in protest against the way Google deals with sexual harassment complaints (see article n°10881).
The two women in question – Claire Stapleton and Meredith Whittaker – say that they have been made aware of more than 300 instances of workers being the subject of retaliation and have called for a day of action on 1 May. A set of demands has been drawn up, calling for a “transparent, open investigation” of the group’s human resources department and how it handles “employee complaints relating to working conditions, discrimination, harassment and retaliation”. Those involved are also...
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