Google Sacks 28 Employees Over Anti-Israel Protest

Google has laid off 28 employees following their protest against a Google contract with the Israeli government. Google sacked them, stating that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated

Google Sacks 28 Employees ( Image Source :Getty )

Google has sacked 28 employees who participated in sit-in protests at its offices. The protests were in response to a Google contract with the Israeli government, and the employees expressed their disagreement with this decision. This Google Layoff occurred after the suspension and subsequent arrest of 9 Google employees in the US earlier this week, according to a report by The Verge.

These 28 employees were protesting against a $1.2 billion Google Cloud contract with the Israeli government. According to the report, in an internal memo addressed to employees, the company emphasised that behaviour of this nature "has no place in our workplace and will not be tolerated."

“The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” the tech giant told the staff.

“The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behaviour -- up to and including termination,” it added.

The company stated that after conducting an investigation, “we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”

As per the report, the protesting group described Google's action as a “flagrant act of retaliation.” “Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about the terms and conditions of our labour. These firings were clearly retaliatory,” stated the group known as "No Tech for Apartheid."

Meanwhile, according to media reports on Wednesday, Google is laying off several employees from its finance and real estate teams. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider, "As we've said, we're responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead. To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities.”