Global Google walkout: Employees around the world stage a mass protest after developer at centre of sexual misconduct scandal received $90m payout
- Thousands of the tech giant’s employees left offices in cities including London, Singapore, Dublin and Zurich
- The ‘Walkout For Real Change’ comes a week after a New York Times article detailed the allegations of sexual misconduct against the creator of Google’s Android technology Andy Rubin and numerous other executives
- Rubin left the company with an astronomical severance package in 2014 despite accusations being ‘credible’
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized for the company’s ‘past actions’ but many remain unconvinced
Hundreds of Google engineers and other workers are expected to walk out on Thursday morning to protest the internet giant’s lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct.
It is the latest expression of a year-long backlash against male exploitation of female subordinates in a business, entertainment and politics.
In Silicon Valley, women are also becoming fed up with the male-dominated composition of the technology industry’s workforce – a glaring imbalance that critics say fosters unsavory behavior akin to a college fraternity house.
The Google protest, billed ‘Walkout For Real Change’, is unfolding a week after a New York Times story detailed allegations of sexual misconduct about creator of its Android software, Andy Rubin.
LONDON: The Google offices in Granary Square in north London where some members of staff staged a walkout as a part of a protest over the company’s treatment of women
LONDON: Workers stand outside the Google offices after walking out as part of a global protest over workplace issues, in London
LONDON: The ‘Walkout For Real Change’ comes a week after a New York Times article detailed the allegations of sexual misconduct against the creator of Google’s Android technology Andy Rubin and numerous other executives
LONDON: Staff oustide the Google offices in Granary Sqaure, London stage a walkout as a part of a protest over the company’s lenient treatment of employees accused of sexual misconduct
The report, which was titled ‘How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’’, said Rubin received a $90 million severance package in 2014 despite Google concluding that the sexual misconduct allegations against him were credible.
Rubin derided the Times story and denied the allegations in a tweet, saying the article contained ‘numerous inaccuracies’ and ‘wild exaggerations’.
Andy Rubin denied the findings of the New York Times report, which was titled ‘How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’’. The article said that the former employee received a $90 million severance package in 2014 despite Google concluding that the sexual misconduct allegations against him were credible
‘These false allegations are part of a smear campaign to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle,’ he wrote.
The same story also disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct of other executives, including Richard DeVaul, a director at the same Google-affiliated lab that created far-flung projects such as self-driving cars and internet-beaming balloons.
DeVaul had remained at the ‘X’ lab after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced about him a few years ago, but resigned Tuesday without severance.
ZURICH: Employees gather next to the Google offices to attend the mass walkout to protest against lenient treatment of sexual misconduct in Zurich, Switzerland November 1, 2018
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized for the company’s ‘past actions’ in an email sent to employees on Tuesday.
‘I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel,’ Pichai wrote.
‘I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society and, yes, here at Google, too.’
SINGAPORE: Google employees gather in a common area to listen to a speaker and attend the Google ‘Walkout For Real Change’ in Singapore
The email didn’t mention the reported incidents involving Rubin, DeVaul or anyone else, but Pichai didn’t dispute anything in the Times story.
In an email last week, Pichai and Eileen Naughton, Google’s executive in charge of personnel issues, sought to reassure workers that the company had cracked down on sexual misconduct since Rubin’s departure four years ago.
Among other things, Pichai and Naughton disclosed that Google had fired 48 employees, including 13 senior managers, for ‘sexual harassment’ in recent years without giving any of them severance packages.
DUBLIN: Google employees at its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, join others from around the world walking out of their offices in protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant
DUBLIN: A crowd of workers stand outside Google’s European headquarters in the Irish capital after walking out as part of a global protest over workplace issues
DUBLIN: Hundreds of people walk past the signage outside the European headquarters of tech giant Google in a mass walkout on Thursday
DUBLIN: A man wearing a Google slogan T-shirt that says ‘don’t be evil’ hands out doughnuts to protesting workers outside Google’s European headquarters
DUBLIN: Thursday’s workout could signal that a significant number of the 94,000 employees working for Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. remained unconvinced the company is doing enough to combat sexual misconduct and other forms of abuse
DUBLIN: Google employees at its European HQ in Ireland join others from around the world walking out of their offices in protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant
But Thursday’s workout could signal that a significant number of the 94,000 employees working for Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. remained unconvinced the company is doing enough to adhere to Alphabet’s own edict urging all employees to ‘do the right thing’.
A Silicon Valley congresswoman tweeted her support of the Google walkout using the ‘metoo’ hashtag that is now synonymous with a global movement for women fighting sexual misconduct.
‘Why do they think it’s OK to reward perpetrators & further violate victims?’ asked Rep. Jackie Speier, who represents an affluent district where many of Google’s employees live.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed that Google had fired 48 employees, including 13 senior managers, for ‘sexual harassment’ in recent years without giving them severance packages like the one Andy Rubin (L) received in 2014, reported to be $90million
The offices of Google in San Francisco with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the background. Hundreds of Google employees are expected to temporarily leave their jobs Thursday morning in a mass walkout protesting the internet company’s lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct
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