Labor Council alleges Google spied on workers who staged protests and fired two

A federal agency accuses Google of spying and then firing two employees who organized protests against the company.

The National Labor Relations Board alleged that the employees – Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers – were sacked after engaging in worker protests against Google’s treatment of employees. Google’s decision to work with IRI Consultants, which has engaged in anti-union efforts in the past and the tech giant’s contracts with certain military contractors, were also protested by employees.

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Google has said it terminated Berland for viewing the calendars of other employees, violating company policies, but the NLRB says the rule itself is illegal.

Meanwhile, Spiers was fired after creating an alert for Google employees to see each time they visited the IRI Consultants site, which stated “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities,” according to The Guardian.

“Google has always strived to support a culture of internal discussion and we have immense trust in our employees. Of course, employees have protected the labor rights which we strongly support, but we have always taken information security very seriously. “the company said in a statement to Axios. “We are confident in our decision and our legal position. The actions taken by the employees in question constituted a serious violation of our policies and an unacceptable violation of a trust responsibility.”

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Google has been ravaged by complaints from workers in recent years unhappy with the changing culture.

Google hired IRI in 2019 after worker unrest swept the company and more than 20,000 employees quit their jobs to express their displeasure over issues of sexual harassment and other company policies.

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