Employees Google sacked over Israel protests: 'Sundar can say he doesn't want that, but ...'

A group of workers at Google have filed a complaint with the US labour board claiming that the tech company unlawfully fired about 50 employees for protesting its cloud contract with the Israeli government. Google employees fired for protesting the company's contract with Israel have filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board ( NLRB ).

The workers allege that Google violated their labour rights by terminating their employment.

What the lawsuit filed by employees terminated by Google claims
The single-page complaint filed with the US Labor Relations Board alleges that by firing the workers, Google interfered with their rights under US labour law to advocate for better working conditions. The fired workers claim they weren't engaging in political debate, but discussing work conditions related to building software sold to governments like Israel's. They believe this discussion is protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act.

“That’s legally protected activity,” one of the fired software engineers told ITPro Today. “Sundar can say he doesn’t want that, but the National Labor Relations Act says otherwise. Google is probably the most powerful company in the world, and the work the workers do every day has an incredible impact. To pretend it’s objective and you can’t talk about the effects of that is absurd,” he added.

In the document filed with the US labour board, and obtained by The Washington Post, the workers specifically say that Google violated their rights “by terminating and/or placing them on administrative leave in response to their protected concerted activity, namely, participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work.”

Zelda Montes, a former Google employee who was arrested during a protest of Project Nimbus, said Google fired workers to suppress organising and send a message to its workforce that dissent would not be tolerated.

“Google is attempting to instil fear in employees," Montes said in a statement provided by No Tech For Apartheid, an organising group affiliated with some of the fired workers.

What were the ' Israel protests ' at Google offices
Late last month, some Google employees in New York and California staged sit-ins opposing the company's cloud contract with the Israel government. Some participants were arrested, and Google fired over 50 employees involved in the protests. Called Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion contract has been jointly awarded to Google and Amazon.com to supply the Israeli government with cloud services. The workers claim the project supports Israel's development of military tools. Google has said the Nimbus contract "is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."

What Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in email to employees
Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to employees said that the company property shouldn't be used for "disruptive issues or debate politics."