Workers' rights | Google employees now able to sue firm

Google has backed down from a controversial policy of barring employees from suing the company over discrimination or wrongful termination, or from joining together in class-action suits.

Wired reports that Google used to force employees to litigate such disputes in arbitration, where hearings are typically closed and the arbitrators are paid for by the company. Critics warned that such a system allows sexual harassers to prey on multiple victims because of the secrecy.

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The change follows a long protest from employees. Last year, around 20,000 Google employees walked out of their offices to protest Google’s mishandling of sexual harassment cases. 

“This victory never would have happened if workers hadn’t banded together, supported one another and walked out,” tweeted ‘Google Walkout for Real Change’, the organizer behind the walkout. “Collective action works. Worker power works. This is still just the beginning.”

Charlotte Garden, a labour law professor at Seattle University School of Law, told Bloomberg that is this a major step forward for the tech giant, explaining that it means that an employee won’t have to worry that raising issues like racial discrimination or retaliation along with sexual harassment will get their case sent to arbitration.