Last Updated on 01/12/2021 by Sunaina
According to NPR, three former Google workers argue that the firm has a contractual responsibility to follow its well-known “don’t be evil” policy, and they are suing the corporation for allegedly dismissing them for pointing out Google’s “evil” actions.
Former employees Sophie Waldman, Rebecca Rivers, and Paul Duke, as well as a fourth employee, Laurence Berland, were dismissed in November 2019 for allegedly breaking the company’s data security regulations, however they say they did not release any private information. The interim chairman of the National Labor Relations Board stated earlier this year that Google “arguably violated” US labour rules by terminating the three employees, suggesting that Google fired the individuals in reprisal for their advocacy.
The group accuses Google of engaging in “evil” and then penalising them for calling the business out on it in a lawsuit filed in the state of California. According to the complaint, when Waldman, Rivers, and Duke were employed by Google, they all signed a contract that contained a “don’t be evil” guideline. As a result, when the employees questioned and petitioned against Google’s contentious cloud computing contract with the Trump administration’s Customs and Border Patrol in 2019, they believed they were acting in accordance with their contracts, citing potential instances of human rights violations at the border.
Since the early 2000s, “don’t be evil” has been a part of Google’s Code of Conduct. Although Alphabet, Google’s parent company, replaced it with “do the right thing” in 2015, the phrase remains in Google’s most recent Code of Conduct, which states: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you believe isn’t right – speak up!”
