Google Employees Demonstrate Over Sexual Harassment

Google employees in Asia kicked off a global protest on Thursday over how the company deals with sexual harassment.

The demonstrations, dubbed “Google Walkout,” follow an outcry over a New York Times investigation that detailed years of sexual harassment allegations, multimillion-dollar severance packages for accused executives, and a lack of transparency over the cases.

Around 150 Google employees in India participated in the walkouts, a company spokesman in the country told CNN. Google (GOOGL) has about 2,000 staff members across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Demonstrations were also reported at the company’s Singapore and Tokyo offices. According to social media posts, Google staffers around the world planned to walk out of their offices at 11:10 a.m. Thursday to demand changes at the company, including an end to the use of forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination.

“We let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate,” Pichai said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday.
“Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward,” he said. “We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”

Source: CNN