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The National Labor Relations Board filed a lawsuit against Google on Wednesday, alleging the company illegally spied and then fired two employees for organizing.
The lawsuit says Google violated employment law by monitoring and firing Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both former engineers at the company’s San Francisco office, in 2019.
Berland was fired after organizing against Google’s decision to hire notorious anti-union firm IRI Consultants. He had discovered working with IRI from the calendar events of his colleagues, who Google said were in violation of their policies.
“The hiring of IRI by Google is a clear statement that management will no longer tolerate the organization of workers,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “the organization is protected by law.”
Spiers had created a pop-up window for Google employees visiting IRI’s website reminding them of their “right to participate in concerted protected activities.”
“This week the NLRB filed a complaint on my behalf,” she said. “They found that I had been unlawfully fired for trying to help my colleagues.”
Google has previously defended the layoffs, claiming the two workers violated company policy.
“We strongly support the rights of our employees in the workplace, and open discussion and respectful debate have always been part of Google,” a company spokesperson told The Hill. “We are proud of our culture and are committed to defending it against attempts by individuals to deliberately undermine it, including by violating internal security policies and systems.
The NLRB determined that accessing internal calendars and reminding workers of their rights did not constitute grounds for retaliation. The agency opened the investigation last December.
Google has until December 16 to respond to the complaint. A hearing in the case is scheduled for mid-April 2021.
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