Google pushed to curb employee protests while claiming to support walkouts, documents show
Google is under fire from its own employees after it asked the US government to change rules which allow staff to plan activism on their work email accounts.
The Silicon Valley tech giant urged the National Labor Relations Board, the US agency which enforces labour laws, to roll back rules which stop companies punishing activist employees who form unions or circulate petitions on workplace communication systems, documents obtained by Bloomberg show.
Last November thousands of Google employees walked out of their offices over allegations that the company had made substantial payouts to senior figures accused of sexually harassing staff.
In a memo on October 30, Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, told employees he was "deeply sorry" for the company's "past actions" and that workers who chose to walk out would "have the support [they] need".
The filing by Google's lawyers urging the NLRB to change the rules was made three weeks later in an unrelated court case case, in which the NLRB had accused the company of infringing on workers' rights.
A spokeswoman for Google said the filing was not part of any concerted lobbying campaign to change the rules, and that it was simply one of the possible legal defences in response to a charge the company considers "without merit".
The NLRB has accused Google of breaking workplace laws including by making threats against employees and warning an employee about comments they had made on email and the company forum G+.
The disciplined employee has not been named, but his lawyer told Bloomberg that his client had been punished for failing to conform to the company's "very, very left-wing office culture".
Activists involved in the November walk-out accused the company of "not operating in good faith" and said the move showed that statements made by Mr Pichai in support of the walkout were hollow.
They also warned that the change would limit their own abilities to organise further activism.
The walkout organisers said: "Sundar assured us that he and Google's leadership supported the walkout. But the company's requests to the National Labor Relations Board tell a different story, showing that Google would rather pay lawyers to change national labor law than do what's right."
A Google spokeswoman said: "Google is one of the most open workplaces in the world. Employees have multiple internal forums to express their views, raise concerns and connect, including thousands of internal communities and tens of thousands of email groups.
"We’re not lobbying for changes to any rules. This was a legal defense that we included as one of many possible defenses in the response to a charge. This case is without merit and we are defending the claim vigorously."
