Is Google’s policy self -consuming?
A group of former Google employees sued Alphabet Inc on Monday over allegations that the company violated employee contracts by disrespecting their own motto of ‘don’t be evil’.
In a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara county California state court, former Google employees Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman and Paul Duke claimed they were fired 2 years ago for fulfilling a contractual obligation to speak out when they saw Google violating their own pledge, 'don' t be evil '.
Google has not commented on the matter but the company has said before that its employees have violated data security policies.
The dismissal has led to ongoing hearings at the National Labor Relations Board about the company allegedly engaging in unfair practices to curb the growing number of workers.
Ranked engineers and files as well as other employees at the company have recently voiced opinions on Google’s policies and projects where management has dismissed the allegations in an effort to maintain control.
The three former Google software engineers have raised concerns in town halls and other Google forums about the company's potential to sell cloud technology to U.S. immigration authorities who were at the time involved in detention tactics deemed inhumane by human rights activists. humans include separating migrant children from their families.
In the lawsuit, the employee considered a potentially ‘evil’ immigration worker under Google’s policy and has called on the company to ‘act with respect and treat each other with respect’ and ‘the highest standards of ethical business conduct’.
He added that the company's code of conduct said employees who thought the company might have failed to meet its commitments should not remain silent leading to the voices of the three employees to express their views.
In the meantime, the claim for the amount of compensation to the employee was not disclosed.
Google has been promoting ‘don’t be evil’ as a core value for over 20 years including when it was announced to the public in 2004.
