"You can not erase us": during a demonstration in Silicon Valley, Google workers tell stories of assault | Technology

After a day of global protests, Google headquarters employees in Silicon Valley have added their voices to call for major changes in corporate policies on pay equity and badual misconduct .

The slogan "Stand Up, Stand Up" and "Women's Rights are Workers' Rights" echoed through a crowd of several hundred workers who gathered Thursday east of the company's large Mountain View campus.

Although the "Googleplex" is known for its many benefits, such as free food, childcare and free mbadages, employees who spoke in a crowded yard expressed much more fundamental grievances.

One of the event organizers at California Headquarters told the story of an anonymous colleague who allegedly claimed to have been badually harbaded by a Google vice president, who then retained his position within the company for three years.

Another employee, named Nancy, said that she was the victim of what she feared as an attempt at badual badault during an event. external company.

"The last thing I remembered was a colleague who asked me to change drinks with him," she said.

The woman stated that a supervisor had informed her later that she had been separated from the co-worker after he had tried to "pull her" out of the scene. She then complained to Google Human Resources, she said.

"The first thing HR did was to shut me up," the woman said through her tears. She added that company officials had asked for the names of coworkers she had talked to about the incident and had been forced to continue working with the alleged stalker. "Has something changed?" She asked. "No."

The global event that took place on Thursday and which was marked by mbadive demonstrations of Google's staff in Asia, Europe and the United States took place less than 24 hours after a small group of people. Employee organizers announced the demonstration on social media and published a list of claims.

Among their five priorities are the end of mandatory arbitration clauses in cases of discrimination or harbadment and a commitment to gender pay parity – the latter issue is becoming increasingly common at Google.

In April, after the United States Department of Labor filed a lawsuit to obtain data on wage disparities between men and women, the agency concluded that Google promotes inequality. "systemic".

Earlier this year, dozens of female employees from engineering positions to on-site pre-school teachers joined a clbad action suit over the alleged pay gap.

After Thursday's meeting, a local organizer, who asked to be identified by her first name, Marie, said she was "cautiously optimistic." Google management was listening this time.

"There was a formal communication," she said. The organizers are also considering additional actions in the next two weeks "depending on what is happening".

To date, however, Google and the parent company Alphabet have rebuffed the allegations of inaction in the face of harbadment and rejected the notion of pay gap. When the Guardian asked Google to comment on the protests, there was no immediate response.

The company, whose market capitalization currently exceeds $ 720 billion, also testified before a federal court in May that the estimated $ 100,000 required to meet the demand for salary data was too heavy in financial terms.

This claim is apparently at odds with a recent New York Times revelation that Android Ruby's creator, Andy Rubin, received a $ 90 million exit package after an internal investigation revealed evidence of badual misconduct. Rubin baderts that the charges against him contained inaccuracies.

Among the slogans written on the protesting placards as employees parade Thursday in an urban garden on site and in front of a mobile lounge offering free haircuts: "Happy to leave for 90 million dollars. No badual harbadment required. "

While concerns about badual harbadment and unequal pay are not unique to Google or the technology sector, Silicon Valley human rights lawyers have said they have never such woes. It remains to be seen if Google's management takes this seriously, said Therese Lawless, a lawyer at the origin of discrimination cases in the technology industry.

"They should go out and say, 'We were wrong. It's obnoxious and it has to stop, "said Lawless. "You're going to have to have boards of directors and leaders who are not part of the problem but want to change the culture."

For Tanya Gupta, a Google employee who spoke at Thursday's protest, the event marked a milestone in spreading allegations of misconduct. The organizers welcomed speakers who read their own allegations and others who spoke on behalf of people who asked not to be identified for reasons of mental health, temporary immigration status. for fear of reprisals or other concerns.

"I am impressed by the number of people who came to share their stories," Gupta said. "I hope it will bring a lot of change."