Google employees stage global walkout in protest

Google staff stage a walkout at its UK headquarters in London. Pic/AFP

Hundreds of Google engineers and other workers around the world walked off the job Thursday to protest the internet company's lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct.

Employees were seen staging walkouts at offices from Tokyo and Singapore to London and Dublin. The Google protest, billed "Walkout For Real Change," is unfolding a week after a New York Times story detailed allegations of sexual misconduct about creator of its Android software, Andy Rubin. The report said Rubin received a $90 million severance package in 2014 even though Google concluded the sexual misconduct allegations against him were credible. Rubin denied the allegations in a tweet.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologised for the company's "past actions" in an email sent to employees Tuesday. "I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel," Pichai wrote, "I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society and, yes, here at Google, too." The email didn't mention the incidents involving Rubin or anyone else, but Pichai didn't dispute anything in the Times story.

Google X exec out on harassement charges
Google's parent company Alphabet on Wednesday confirmed that Rich DeVaul, director at Google X lab, accused of sexual harassment, left the company without an exit package. Alphabet declined to give details about DeVaul's departure from the company on Tuesday. Google had recently announced that employees terminated over such misconducts are not provided with any exit package.

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