Google developer executive received a $90 million severance package
Employees at tech giant Google plan to stage a massive walkout this Thursday to protest the company’s controversial settlement of a sexual misconduct allegation, and its handling of sexual harassment cases, reports say.
The walkout has been dubbed the “women’s walk” by employees participating, according to BuzzFeedNews.
A Google developer executive received a $90 million severance package as growing accusations of his sexual misconduct became credible., according to Deadline.
According to the Times report, Andrew Rubin left Google in 2014 at the time when a woman claimed he forced her to have oral sex with him.
“Rubin was one of three executives that Google protected over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct. In two instances, it ousted senior executives but softened the blow by paying them millions of dollars as they departed, even though it had no legal obligation to do so. In a third, the executive remained in a highly compensated post at the company. Each time Google stayed silent about the accusations against the men,” the Times wrote.
Rubin rejected the claims contained in the Times story.
“The New York Times story contains numerous inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my compensation,” Rubin said in a statement.
“Specifically, I never coerced a woman to have sex in a hotel room. These false allegations are part of a smear campaign by my ex-wife to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle,” his statement said.
According to the WJ: Google reacted by sending employees an email said that it fired 48 people due to sexual misconduct issues and never returned any of them an exit package.
“We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in the email.
But Liz Fong-Jones, a Google engineer, said employees were not buying the story management was selling.
“…over the weekend, frustrated employees in a group for female engineers began upvoting a post on an internal forum that suggested employees organize a walkout. By Monday morning […] the Google group of employees who planned to participate numbered more than 200.”
✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 https://t.co/fZK850eOl6
— Tech Workers Coalition (@techworkersco) October 29, 2018
Google employees, unhappy with the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against executives, planning a walkout, maybe for Thursday. They have a list of requests for management: https://t.co/7I9ubZmPB6
— Ellen Huet (@ellenhuet) October 29, 2018
“When Google covers up harassment and passes the trash, it contributes to an environment where people don’t feel safe reporting misconduct,” she said.
“They suspect that nothing will happen or, worse, that the men will be paid and the women will be pushed aside,” she added.
Some Google employees are preparing to walk out from their jobs because they’re dissatisfied with Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai’s response to a report about the company’s handling of alleged…
In its report on the walkout, Bloomberg said that employees had granted management with a list of demands aimed at supporting individuals who want to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment at Google.