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Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a warning to employees following the settlement of a shareholder lawsuit accusing the board of mishandling sexual misconduct allegations against past executives.
Pichai, in an email to the company’s employees, wrote, “I hope these commitments will serve as a strong signal to all of you that we are not going back in time,” as quoted by CNBC .
“It’s very important to me that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standard as a workplace on issues of misconduct, and provide care and support to people who report it...I’ve been working closely with our teams and our board to ensure that we are doing this,” Pichai added.
Shareholder lawsuit
Alphabet last week reached a $310-million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit over its handling of sexual misconduct allegations against past executives.
In 2018, thousands of Google employees had walked out in protest following a New York Times report that Android creator Andy Rubin had received a $90-million severance package despite sexual misconduct allegations.
In another instance, Google had set up a Special Litigation Committee of independent directors in 2019. It had brought law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore on board to conduct an investigation into sexual misconduct by its executives, CNBC reported.
The investigation had also looked into alleged inappropriate behaviour by Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond who left without an exit package in January this year. No reason was given for his departure, as per reports.
Changes in company policy
Following last week’s settlement, Eileen Naughton, VP, People Operations at Google, in a blog post had detailed “five guiding principles and a list of detailed changes” that the company will be following moving forward. The tech giant will no longer provide a severance package to employees terminated for misconduct.
“We’re building on our current practice of prohibiting severance for anyone terminated for any form of misconduct, and expanding the prohibition to anyone who is the subject of a pending investigation for sexual misconduct or retaliation,” Naughton said.
The company is also setting up a new DEI Advisory Council to advise on and oversee these efforts, she added.
“If there are allegations against any executives, a specialist team will be assigned and the results of any case will be reported to the Board’s Audit Committee,” Naughton wrote.
As part of the settlement, the company has pledged $310 million in funding which will be used towards “diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and programs focused on increasing access to computer science education and careers”.
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