Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is being accused of violating labor laws by spying on employees involved in activism before firing them. This is according to the National Labor Relations Board complaint filed accusing the tech giant of breaching labor laws by spying on employee activism.
Google unlawfully fired employees for participating in activism
According to the complaint, two employees Kathryn Spiers and Laurence Berland were fired late last year due to employee activism involvement. Berland questions Google’s decision to work with IRI Consultants, a company known to be against union efforts. The tech giant fired him for reviewing other worker’s calendars, and the NLRB has now established that the company’s policy is against workers looking at some coworker’s calendars is illegal. Google let go of several other employees in the wake of the protests, but according to NLRB, only Spiers and Berland’s terminations were unlawful.
The complaint states that the company monitored employees before interrogating them for engaging in activism and then fired them later. NLRB also indicates that Google also enforced rules stopping workers from accessing one another’s calendar without any business reason and introduced a 100-person cap on the number of workers that could sign on calendar events.
Berland and Spiers accused of data security policy breach
The company claimed that the firing of Spiers and Berland was because they violated data-security policies. Berland got fired for accessing worker’s calendars to organize protests against IRI. Berland indicated in a statement that the hiring of the anti-union firm IRI by Google was an unambiguous declaration from the company that it will not be tolerating worker organizing. He said that Google’s management and their union breaking associates were sending a message, and now the NLRB has sent a message that employee organizing is permitted under law.
Google fired Spiers for creating a pop-up for employees vising the IRI website. The notification stated that Googlers had the right to take part in protected concerted activities. According to the company, Spiers has violated data security policies, but the NLRB has established that her firing was unlawful.