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posted by martyb on Thursday December 02 2021, @12:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the chaotic-neutral dept.

Lawsuit: Google employees were fired for upholding “Don’t be evil” code:

Three former Google software engineers who sued the company yesterday claim they were fired for following Google's famous "Don't be evil" mantra.

"Google terminated each plaintiffs' employment with it for adhering to the directive 'Don't be evil' and calling out activity by Google that they each believed betrayed that directive," according to the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman, and Paul Duke. The ex-employees say Google falsely blamed them for a data leak after they circulated an internal petition.

The lawsuit notes that the Google Code of Conduct "that each full-time Google employee is required to sign as a condition of employment" specifically instructs them not to be evil. The ex-employees say they tried to uphold the "Don't be evil" policy in August 2019 by circulating a petition "requesting that Google affirm that it would not collaborate with CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] or ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with respect to enforcement of the Trump border control policies."

"[E]ach plaintiff protested Google's engagement in supporting BCP policies that resulted in separation of families and 'caging' of immigrants who were seeking asylum in the United States," the complaint said.

Google's firings of Rivers, Waldman, and Duke are also part of an ongoing case in which the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Google.

Previously:
(2018-10-13) Google Leak: The Good Censor
(2018-09-14) "Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
(2018-05-19) "Don't be Evil" Disappearing From Google's Code of Conduct


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday December 02 2021, @04:42PM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday December 02 2021, @04:42PM (#1201547) Journal

    It's more than that, though. The tech companies abuse the H1-B system to bring in labor for less than the going rate in-country in order to suppress wages. The H1-B's are not working for less than minimum wage, but it still has a deleterious effect on citizens who paid first-world fees for a first-world degree only to find out that the companies they thought they'd work for and earn first-world wages from suddenly only want to pay third-world rates.

    We talk about tech companies often here so I used them as an example, but it's used by many more companies in other sectors in the USA; my brother works for one of the big 3 in Detroit and his company does it, too.

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    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 03 2021, @12:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 03 2021, @12:55AM (#1201697)

    I was replying in particular to the parent post, which seemed focus on illegal immigrants taking bottom tier wage jobs and - according to them - facilitating the sex trade and sending their earnings overseas.

    I agree with what you wrote, but as bad as that is, I think it's less of an issue. Even the people in tech or medicine that despise the immigrants driving down wages, they don't consider them subhuman or advocate violence towards them. When it comes to Latinos crossing the southern border, it seems like half the US wants to stick them in gas chambers. And again, they're only coming because they can find better work here than at home, and they can only find better work here because our government never punishes the people who hire them.