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Google violated U.S. labor laws in clampdown on worker organizing, regulator says
The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint on Wednesday accusing Alphabet Inc's Google of unlawfully monitoring and questioning several workers who were then fired for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union.
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The National Labor Relations Board will file a complaint accusing Alphabet Inc’s Google of unlawfully monitoring and questioning workers, who were fired for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union, the former employees said in a statement on Wednesday.
The NLRB did not respond to a request for comment.
Google said it was confident in its legal position.
“Google has always worked to support a culture of internal discussion, and we place immense trust in our employees,” it said. “Actions undertaken by the employees at issue were a serious violation of our policies and an unacceptable breach of a trusted responsibility.”
The complaint follows a year-long investigation prompted by a petition by five people fired by Google after they led efforts to protest company policies and organize colleagues into a potential union. The Communications Workers of America union helped author the workers’ charge.
Google said the workers breached information security rules.
Their firings capped two years of battling between Google and its workforce, particularly in the United States. At issue is how much input the rank and file has on which projects the company takes on and how it handles sexual misconduct and other workplace matters.