"Google Overhauls Sexual Misconduct Policy After Employee Walkout" Nov 8

Google [will] end its practice of forced arbitration for claims of sexual harassment or assault, after more than 20,000 employees staged a walkout to protest how the internet company handles cases of sexual misconduct. In an email to staff on Thursday, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, said he was altering the sexual harassment policies because “as C.E.O., I take this responsibility very seriously and I’m committed to making the changes we need to improve...“[w]e will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims,” he added. Mr. Pichai also said Google would overhaul its reporting process for harassment and assault, provide more transparency to employees about incidents reported to the company and dock employees in their performance reviews if they do not complete sexual harassment training. 

The company did not address some other demands by workers, including that it make its internal report on harassment public and put an employee representative on the board. It did not include temporary workers, vendors and contractors in the changes. Google Walkout For Real Change, the organizers behind the employee walkout, said that although they were encouraged by the changes, the company did not go far enough in addressing systemic racism and other forms of discrimination.