While Google claimed to have taken action in response to “disruptive behavior,” staff members described it as a “flagrant act of revenge.”
According to an internal memo that was viewed by The Verge, Google has terminated the employment of 28 employees who were part in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government on the “Project Nimbus” project. This follows the arrest and suspension of nine employees on April 16 and a previous termination connected to the same project that occurred a month ago.
Some of the employees who were terminated were taken from their positions by force when they occupied the office of Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud. The head of worldwide security at Google, Chris Rackow, stated that the business “will not tolerate” incidents of this nature and issued a warning that the company may take additional measures into consideration.
“If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” he advised staff members in a written communication. “The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior — up to and including termination.”
In our workplace, behavior such as this has no place, and we will not allow it under any circumstances. There are a number of policies that all employees are required to adhere to, and this plainly breaches a number of those policies. These policies include our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.
On the other hand, employees who were part of the “No Tech for Apartheid” group that was organizing the demonstrations referred to the dismissals as “a flagrant act of retaliation.” It went on to say that the statement made by Google that protests are primarily carried out by individuals who are not employed by the company is “insulting,” and it went on to say that the movement to abandon Project Nimbus is backed by “thousands” of their coworkers.
“In the three years that we have been organizing against Project Nimbus, we have yet to hear from a single executive about our concerns,” it stated in a post on Medium. “We are extremely concerned about this program.” Employees at Google have the right to demonstrate in a peaceful manner regarding the terms and circumstances of their employment. These terminations were obviously a form of retaliation.