Though Google has done a few changes to its policies after various massive protests by its employees and shows that they understand and support their employees, but the recent Bloomberg’s report says something else. According to Bloomberg, they are quietly requesting National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to undo a 2014 Act that allows employees to organize over workplace email without the fear of punishment.
Last year in August, the Board issued a notice inviting the public to file briefs on whether the Board should overrule its 2014 decision in favor of Purple Communications, Inc. According to this decision, employees have the right to use their employer’s e-mail system during the non-working time for union organizing and other activities listed under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Bloomberg obtained the filings that were submitted in May 2017 and November 2018 under the Freedom of Information Act request, which shows that Alphabet Inc.’s Google has urged the Board to overturn that precedent.
As a reply to Bloomberg, a Google spokeswoman stated in an emailed statement that, “We’re not lobbying for changes to any rules. This was a legal defense that we included as one of many possible defenses in the response to a charge. This case is without merit and we are defending the claim vigorously.”
Company emails come in handy as employees are spread across the globe and don’t have most co-workers’ personal emails. A Google employee activist, Colin McMillen, who was also one of the participants in the November’s Google Walkout told Bloomberg that if NLRB actually ends up overturning the rule “it would have a huge chilling effect.” One of the critical ways of communicating and organizing the Google Walkout event was Google’s mailing lists. In a talk held earlier this month by the Logic Magazine, Liz Fong-Jones shared that most of the communication for protesting against Google real name policy was done on Google Docs.
McMillen also added, “It demonstrates that Google leadership is not operating in good faith. They can have a town hall and try to say soothing words and get people to not want to quit, but then if in the background they’re not just rejecting carrying out most of the demands of the walkout, but also trying to tamp down our ability to even coordinate and talk to each other about these issues, that’s extremely concerning.”
As a response to this, Google Walkout for Real Change tweeted that instead of Google checking its “unethical and selfish decision making”, they are focusing on changing the national labor law. They warned that the outcome of this move will not only impact Google employees but all employees across the nation.
With so many scandals against the company, some users feel that the root cause lies in its leadership. One of the Reddit users said, “It seems like since Larry Page and Sergey Brin are no longer leading Google but its parent company, Google has really started going downhill ethically.” Another user on Hacker News said, “There’s something very rotten at the top levels at Google. The “Don’t be evil” motto has long disappeared and has been replaced by apathy and/or hostility on different fronts. Maybe this move by Google is actually good…to help more employees and others realize how the company has morphed into something that’s no longer doing as much good for humanity as it used to boast about.”
You can read the full report at Bloomberg’s website.
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