IANS | 18 Apr, 2024
Tech giant Google has laid off 28 employees who were involved in
sit-in protests at its offices over a Google contract with the Israeli
government.
The layoffs happened after nine employees were suspended and then arrested in the US earlier this week, reports The Verge.
The 28 employees who have been asked to go protested a $1.2 billion Google Cloud contract for the Israeli government.
In
an internal memo to employees, the company said that behaviour like
this “has no place in our workplace, and we will not tolerate it.”
“The
overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If you’re
one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct
that violates our policies, think again,” Google told the staff.
“The
company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply
our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behaviour --
up to and including termination.”
The group behind the protests called Google’s move a “flagrant act of retaliation.”
“Google
workers have the right to peacefully protest about the terms and
conditions of our labour. These firings were clearly retaliatory,” said
the group called “No Tech for Apartheid.”
The company said that
following an investigation, “we terminated the employment of
twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to
investigate and take action as needed.”
