Among the changes, the company will no longer force employees with sexual assault or harassment claims into arbitration.
The elimination of forced arbitration is one of several sweeping changes Google employees called for with a coordinated protests at Google offices one week ago.
"We will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Google has never required confidentiality in the arbitration process and arbitration still may be the best path for a number of reasons (e.g. personal privacy) but, we recognize that choice should be up to you," wrote Google CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to staff explaining its policy updates.
The walkout was sparked by outrage over a New York Times investigation published October 25 that detailed years of sexual harassment allegations and secret multimillion-dollar severance packages for executives accused of misconduct.
"We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It's clear we need to make some changes," Pichai wrote.
Pichai said the company will also update and expand its sexual harassment training, and overhaul how it deals with employee concerns. Google said it will offer "extra care and resources" for staffers, including extended counseling and career support for those filing concerns.
This story is developing...
No comments:
Post a Comment