Google spied on employees, fired them illegally, says NLRB

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has filed a lawsuit against Google and its parent company Alphabet, accusing the tech giant of violating labor laws.

The company would have “interfered with, restricted and coerced employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed in section 7 of the law”, according to the complaint filed Tuesday.

Specifically, the NLRB case documents accuse Google of illegally spying on employees, firing multiple employees in retaliation for attempting to unionize, and illegally preventing employees from sharing their work grievances and information with each other using general tools such as calendars, emails, meeting rooms, and a Google internal communication tool called MemeGen.

The NLRB has said it expects a response from Google by December 16, and the agency said it will hold a hearing on April 12, 2021 in San Francisco.

Google did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

The NLRB’s conclusion comes a year after CNBC first reported that the NLRB had opened a new investigation into Google’s labor practices. It also follows a major $ 310 million settlement by Google in an Alphabet shareholder lawsuit that alleged the company had mismanaged allegations of sexual misconduct by its executives.

Latest investigation stems from outcry from employees over the questioning and subsequent dismissal of employees, including Rebecca Rivers and Laurence Berland, who were put on sudden and indefinite administrative leave in November 2019 for allegedly “spreading business information outside of their duties “. . On Thanksgiving week 2019, Google fired four employees, including Berland and Rivers, claiming they shared confidential documents and breached security. The workers filed a complaint with the NLRB shortly after.

Soon after, Google fired safety engineer Kathryn Spiers after creating a pop-up notification for Google employees visiting the website of IRI Consultants, a company known for its anti-union work, which Google had hired. Spiers filed a complaint with the NLRB shortly thereafter.

At the time, workers won public support from presidential leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who took to Twitter to denounce Google for alleged “anti-union” actions.

The NLRB consolidated the Berland and Spiers cases in Tuesday’s case.

The agency says Google has illegally monitored employees “on numerous occasions,” including watching an employee presentation in support of union efforts, the file said.

The complaint alleges that Google held a global investigations meeting at its San Francisco facility where it “questioned its employees about their protected concerted activities by asking them about their access to employee calendars and MemeGen takedown documents he says, referring to the meme generator company.

It also states that a new Google calendar policy that prevented employees from creating events with more than 100 employees or more than 10 rooms was intended to “discourage employees from engaging in these or other activities. concerted “.

Watch: Google employees step out to protest against company handling of sexual misconduct