GOOG Alphabet Inc

By Douglas MacMillan 

Google employees around the world have staged a series of walkouts on Thursday to protest a workplace culture that they say promotes and protects perpetrators of sexual harassment at the tech giant.

The organizers of the walkout -- which began in Asia and held at 11:10 a.m. local time at Google's offices around the world -- published a letter demanding that the company change its policies to make it safer for women to report instances of sexual harassment and make those reports more transparent to the entire company.

"There are thousands of us, at every level of the company," the Google employees wrote. "And we've had enough."

Employee activism is rising in response to a New York Times article last week reporting the Alphabet Inc. unit protected three senior executives over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct, including one whom it gave a $90 million exit package in 2014. Google declined to comment on details in the Times story.

In a memo to staff on Tuesday, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai apologized for the company's past actions and said he is committed to taking "a harder line on inappropriate behavior." He said the company has fired 48 staff members for sexual harassment over the past two years.

Photos of the walkout flooded social media on Thursday, as Google employees filled the streets outside of offices from Mumbai to Dublin. The social-media giant has more than 80,000 employees worldwide.

The largest walkout is expected at Google's main campus in Mountain View, Calif., later on Thursday.

Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 01, 2018 11:59 ET (15:59 GMT)

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