Alphabet on Friday announced changes at google and its other operating divisions to address sexual misconduct. This settles a lawsuit filed by shareholders.
The employee can go to court instead of private arbitration following to resolve issues over treatment. Under the terms of the settlement, the internet search engine will spend $310 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives which further will help the employee to file lawsuits in the court.
“Over the past several years, we have been taking a harder line on inappropriate conduct, and have worked to provide better support to the people who report it,” Alphabet vice president Eileen Naughton said in an email to workers.
“Protecting our workplace and culture means getting both of these things right, and in recent years we’ve worked hard to set and uphold higher standards for the whole company.”
Thousands of Google employees joined a coordinated worldwide walkout to protest the US tech company handling of sexual harassment in support of shareholders filed a lawsuit against the tech gaint early last year.
The company has since implemented policy changes and other steps to address concerns.
A practice instituted after the protests of not giving severance packages to executives fired for misconduct will be expanded to include those being looked at in pending investigations of sexual misconduct or retaliation claims, according to the settlement.
The shareholder lawsuit argued that Alphabet’s board and senior executives improperly awarded multi-million-dollar severance packages to several male executives accused of sexually harassing female employees, even after internal investigations found accusations to be credible.
The suit cited package given to Andy Rubin considered ‘’father of Android’’ for the creation of a widely used mobile operating system backed by Google.
The grievance investigations claimed the sexual harassment case against him which he is continuously denying it.
Some demonstrators who streamed across the Mountain View campus during the walkout in late 2018 waved signs bearing messages such as “Happy to quit for $90 million — no sexual harassment required.”
The protest grew further after Google said that it had fired 48 employees in the previous two years including 13 senior executives as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct.
The concern was termed at Google as a part of a chorus voice denouncing the existence of a sexist culture in male-dominated Silicon Valley.
In the email to employees, Naughton said Alphabet is setting up a diversity, equality, and inclusion advisory council that will include members from outside the company, and outlined guiding principles being instituted.
Changes included refining Alphabet’s policy about excessive drinking of alcohol at work-related events to curb chances of inappropriate behavior.
The settlement includes Google and Alphabet’s “Other Bets” divisions which include the Waymo autonomous car unit and Verily life sciences initiative, among others.
