US labor Board alleges that Google has illegally spied on its employees before firing them

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today filed a complaint against Google alleging them of Violating US labour laws by spying on their workers and then firing two of them. The two employees were supposedly organizing employee protests.

Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers are the two employees whose names have been mentioned in the complaint. Both of them were fired by the company in late 2019 in connection to employee activism. Berland was organizing the protest against Google’s decision to work with IRI Consultants when he was let go for reviewing other employees’ calendars. The IRI Consultants is a firm which is widely known for its anti-union efforts.

NLRB has now come to know of Google’s employee policy which states that employees looking at certain coworkers’ calendar is unlawful. The Board also found that only the terminations of Berland and Spiers violated the labour laws, even though many other employees were fired in connection to protests.

According to the Guardian, the second employee fired, Kathryn Spiers, had created a pop-up for Google employees visiting the IRI Consultants website. “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities,” the pop-up read. The company said that she was fired because she violated its security policies.

Both Spiers and Berlan have given their statements with respect to this matter and said that they are protected under the law.

The complaint would before an administrative judge in case Google chooses not to settle. The company could also be forced to pay back their wages and rehire them if it loses the case.

In a statement to The Verge, a Google spokesperson said that they are committed to defending their culture against attempts by individuals violating security policies and internal systems. They also said that they will provide full cooperation in the investigation and that their decision to terminate the employees was because they abused their access to internal systems and employee calendars, which they term as a serious violation of the company policies and breach of trusted responsibility.