As first reported by Motherboard, Google has reached a settlement with six engineers. The six engineers said the company suppressed employees’ organizing efforts. The specifics of the settlement are still under nondisclosure agreements, but none of the four workers allegedly fired in 2019 due to labor activity will be reinstated, but one worker remains employed by the tech giant.
The four employees, Rebecca Rivers, Laurence Berland, Paul Duke and Sophie Waldman, filed labor charges against Google in 2019 after the company said they were fired for violating data security policies. Before being fired, they organized rallies against Google’s morally questionable choices. Berland reached a settlement with Google last year.
Another employee, Kathryn Spiers, was also fired shortly after for creating an internal pop-up ad promoting “Googlers have the right to participate in protected collaborative activities.” Such pop-ups appear when employees view Google’s internal employee guidelines or visit the website of IRI Consulting, an anti-union firm hired by Google. Google said Spiers was fired because the code she used to create notifications was not properly approved.
It took over 2 years of fighting. Over 2 years of living in a near-constant hell.
But, it is finally over.
Fighting for workers’ rights is hard, it hurts, but seeing the impact that we have helped make in the Labor Organizing movement is worth it. https://t.co/MWuX3zqbs4
— Rebecca Rivers (@Tri_Becca90) March 21, 2022
In 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Google, alleging that the company illegally spied on Berland and Spiers before firing them and that Google’s firing of Waldman, Rivers and Duke arguably violated labor laws. The NLRB also took the tech giant to court last year, and in the course of a two-year legal battle, the NLRB discovered something called Project Vivian, Google’s secretive union-busting effort. In January, a court-ordered Google to turn over more internal documents, which the company sought to conceal by sworn in by attorney-client privilege.
“It took over two years of fighting. For over 2 years, we’ve been living in a near-continuous hell. But it’s finally over,” Rivers wrote in a tweet, “fighting for workers’ rights. It’s tough, it’s painful, but it’s worth seeing the impact we’ve helped in the labor organization movement.”
In November, Waldman, Rivers and Duke filed a separate lawsuit against Google, saying they were contractually obligated to abide by the company’s “don’t be evil” policy, which is why they protested Google’s contract with CBP. The lawsuit was dropped as part of the settlement, The New York Times reported.
“I’m very proud of what my clients have accomplished: They fought aggressively — and successfully — to expose Google’s plan, orchestrated at the highest levels of internal management, to quell unionization and stop it Employees speak out on workplace and global concerns,” Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing the employees, said in a statement to The Verge. “I believe that my client’s success here — effectively bringing Google to its knees — Other Googlers, as well as those in other industries, will be encouraged to pick up the baton and continue working to hold businesses accountable for their actions.”