San Francisco (AFP)
Google fired four employees Monday for consulting documents that they should not have accessed, provoking the ire of some of their colleagues who see it as a reprisal against people involved in protest movements.
This decision of the company is primarily intended "to hinder any attempt at organization among employees," said in a message published on the Medium platform a group of Google employees who had co-organized a late work stoppage in 2018, called "Google Walkout For Real Change", to denounce the management of sexual harassment within the company.
According to the Bloomberg agency, the management sent Monday an email to all employees explaining having fired four people who "clearly and repeatedly violated our policies in terms of data security."
"An in-depth investigation showed that these people deliberately conducted systematic searches on the documents and work of other employees," searches that were not part of their own duties, adds the company in the document.
Without specifying the identity of the employees concerned, Google has confirmed to AFP have fired four people and the content of the email unveiled by Bloomberg. The group did not wish to comment further.
One of the people concerned, Rebecca Rivers, confirmed Monday on his Twitter account to have been removed from office. She notably criticized the fact that Google works with the US agency in charge of immigration and borders.
According to the text of employees on Medium, the company began by hiring a company specialized in the fight against unionization in companies.
"At about the same time, Google has reshaped its policies to make the mere consultation of certain documents an offense that could justify a dismissal", is written in the message.
"This policy change was an excuse for retaliation against employees seeking to organize, giving (to Google) a pretext for choosing who to target," he added.
The group, a subsidiary of Alphabet, finds itself more and more often beset by its own employees on issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace or its participation in tenders for US agencies in the United States. field of defense or immigration.
© 2019 AFP