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Google Illegally Surveilled and Fired Employees for Organizing, New Complaint Alleges
‘This complaint makes clear that workers have the right to speak to issues of ethical business and the composition of management’
Google illegally surveilled and fired employees for participating in organizing efforts last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said in a complaint filed on Wednesday.
The complaint alleges that the technology giant violated labor laws after spying on, interrogating, and terminating employees Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both former engineers at Google’s San Francisco office.
Last November, Berland was suspended after publicly opposing Google’s stance on the use of its technology by government agencies. He was fired later that month after organizing employees against the company’s hiring of union-busting firm IRI Consultants, which Googlers learned of from their colleagues’ public calendar entries. Google claimed the accessing of calendar events was a violation of its policies.
“This complaint makes clear that workers have the right to speak to issues of ethical business and the composition of management,” Berland said in a statement. “Workers have the right to speak out about and organize…
