Google layoffs: Ex-employees allege unlawful firings over Israel protest

A cluster of employees within Alphabet Inc's Google has lodged a complaint with the US labour board, asserting that the tech giant unjustly dismissed approximately 50 workers for their dissent against its cloud contract with the Israeli government.

The complaint, condensed to a single page, was filed on Monday evening with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It alleges that Google's termination of these employees amounted to an infringement upon their rights under U.S. labour law to advocate for improved working conditions.

Earlier this month, Google announced the termination of 28 employees who disrupted operations at unspecified office locations while protesting Project Nimbus. This project, valued at $1.2 billion, was jointly secured by Google and Amazon to furnish cloud services to the Israeli government. Additionally, the company disclosed last week that roughly 20 more workers had been discharged for demonstrating against the contract while within the office premises.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Google condemned the conduct of the dismissed workers as "completely unacceptable," contending that it had caused other employees to feel threatened and unsafe. "We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in disruption inside our buildings," the company affirmed.

The protesting workers argue that Project Nimbus directly aids Israel's advancement of military technology. Conversely, Google has maintained that the Nimbus contract "is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."

Zelda Montes, a former Google employee who faced arrest during a protest against Project Nimbus, asserted that Google's actions were aimed at quashing organising efforts and conveying a message to its workforce that dissent would not be tolerated. "Google is attempting to instill fear in employees," Montes declared in a statement to Reuters provided by No Tech For Apartheid, a collective affiliated with some of the dismissed workers.

The aggrieved workers, as outlined in their NLRB complaint, are seeking reinstatement to their positions along with retroactive pay, and a commitment from Google to respect employees' rights to organise. The NLRB's general counsel, vested with prosecutorial powers, will review the complaints and endeavour to resolve those it deems meritorious. Should settlement negotiations prove fruitless, the general counsel retains the authority to pursue cases before administrative judges and a five-member board appointed by the US president.