Former employees seeking reinstatement, backpay after April protests over Israel
Former Google workers are seeking reinstatement and backpay after the tech giant terminated them in response to their April protests over Google's cloud-computing contract with the Israel government, according to reports.
CNN reported that "dozens" of former Google employees have submitted a complaint to the US National Labor Relations Board, accusing the company of retaliating against them.
The former staff claimed that they were carrying out "protected concerted activity, namely, participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work."
In response, Google remained firm on its actions, while condemning the protests as "completely unacceptable."
"We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in disruption inside our buildings. We are confident in our position and stand by the actions we’ve taken," a spokesperson told CNN.
No Tech for Apartheid, the organiser of the Google protests, claimed last week that the number of terminated employees at the tech giant has reached 50.
This includes "non-participating bystanders" at the protests, according to the group, which is comprised of Google and Amazon workers.
The group further accused Google of quashing dissent and silencing its workers, stating that it was "throwing a tantrum" because of its workforce's strength demonstrated in the protests.
"Now, the corporation is lashing out at any worker that was physically in the vicinity of the protest - including those who were not at all involved in the campaign," it said in a previous statement.
The group told Google executives that they will "not stop fighting" until the tech giant drops its deal with the Israel government.
"We will not stop fighting, and we will not back down. We will not stop demanding protection for our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues," it said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai previously slammed the protest on a blog post published days after the demonstrations were carried out.
"Ultimately, we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts co-workers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics," he said.
