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Google layoffs: A group of employees within Alphabet Inc's Google lodged a complaint with the US labour board claiming the the company fired almost 50 workers unjustly. This comes after Google laid off several employees for their dissent against the company's cloud contract with the Israeli government. The complaint was filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and alleges that Google's termination of employees amounted to an infringement upon their rights under US labour law.
Google layoffs: Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at Stanford University.(AFP) Google layoffs over Israel protests
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Google announced in early April that it was dismissing 28 employees who disrupted operations at unspecified office locations while protesting Project Nimbus. The project- which is valued at $1.2 billion- was jointly secured by Google and Amazon to provide cloud services to the Israeli government amid Hamas war. The company later said that 20 more workers had also been laid off over protests against the contract in office premises.
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What Google said on the layoffs
Google condemned the conduct of the employees who were laid off and said that it was “completely unacceptable.” The company said in a statement, “We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in disruption inside our buildings.”
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What fired employees said on Google's stand over protests?
Zelda Montes, a former Google employee who faced arrest during the protests, said as per news agency Reuters that Google's actions were aimed at stopping organising efforts in the company. Google was sending a message to its employees that dissent would not be tolerated., Zelda Montes said, adding “Google is attempting to instill fear in employees.”
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What Sundar Pichai said after the protests?
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blogpost, “Ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
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