Google mentioned that they had been confident they acted lawfully. (AP Photo)
The National Labour Relations Board, an independent agency of the United States tasked with enforcing US labour laws has accused Alphabet’s Google of illegally surveilling and grilling its many personnel and then firing them for protesting against the organisation’s policies and for attempting to organize a worker’s union. A complaint has been lodged against Google for ‘unlawfully’ placing workers on administrative leave or terminating them.
According to a Reuters report, the US labour regulator physique alleged Google illegally applied guidelines to workers who participated in activist activities. The enterprise also terminated personnel alleging they accessed documents connected to how the enterprise patrols its internal forums. The complaint also says that Google has unlawfully accessed documents and meeting rooms to retain an eye on activist workers and deter them from organizing workplace unions.
Google in its defence mentioned that they had been confident they acted lawfully. According to the tech giant, the personnel terminated breached data safety guidelines of the enterprise and the actions undertaken by the personnel had been an ‘unaccepted breach of trusted responsibility’ It also added that the enterprise encouraged a culture of internal discussion and had trust on its personnel and it would continue to give data to the labour agency about its choice to fire or disciple personnel.
The labour board’s complaint stemmed from a dismissal of 4 personnel later labelled the “Thanksgiving Four” a year ago claiming they shared confidential documents and breached safety code. All these personnel had either organized or participated in protests or petitions against the enterprise. The workers then went to seek a federal investigation in their termination of employment.
Google has been offered time till December 16 to formally respond to the NLRB complaint. The case that can lead to a alter in enterprise policies and reinstatement of the dismissed workers will go for a hearing in front of an administrative law judge on April 12.