Google Workers Protest Against Office Harassment, Inequality

Hundreds of Google employees in Asia staged a protest over sexism, racism and unchecked executive power issues in their workplace and more are expected to follow worldwide.

They also asked for changes to Google’s human resources practice and are bent on making the process of bringing harassment simpler and fairer.

In a statement by the aggrieved workers, they called on Alphabet. Inc to add an employee representative to its board of directors and internally share pay-equity data.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement that “employees have raised constructive ideas’’ and that the company was “taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.’’

The dissatisfaction among Alphabet’s 94,000 employees and tens of thousands more contractors has not noticeably affected company shares. But employees expect Alphabet to face recruiting and retention challenges if their concerns go unaddressed.

The protest was coming after New York Times report that Google in 2014 gave a 90 million dollars exit package to Andy Rubin after the then-senior vice president was accused of sexual harassment.

Rubin denied the allegation in the story, which he also said contained “wild exaggerations’’ about his compensation. Google did not dispute the report.

The report has triggered lots of protest internally for Google to increase diversity, improve treatment of women and minorities and ensure the company upholds its motto of “don’t be evil’’ as it expands.

“While Google has championed the language of diversity and inclusion, substantive actions to address systemic racism, increase equity, and stop sexual harassment have been few and far between,” the protesters said.

They also want Google to publicly report its sexual harassment statistics and end forced arbitration in harassment cases.