Google reforms sexual misconduct rules after criticism

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is promising to be more forceful and open about its handling of sexual misconduct cases, a week after high-paid engineers and others walked out in protest over its male-dominated culture at Google facilities worldwide, including in Israel.

CEO Sundar Pichai spells out the concessions in an email sent Thursday to Google employees. The note of contrition comes a week after the tech giant’s workers left their cubicles in dozens of offices around the world to protest management’s treatment of top executives and other male workers accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct involving men. The protest’s organizers estimated about 17,000 workers participated in the walkout.

“Google’s leaders and I have heard your feedback and have been moved by the stories you’ve shared,” Pichai writes in his email. “We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It’s clear we need to make some changes.”

Google bowed to one of the protesters’ main demands by dropping mandatory arbitration of all sexual misconduct cases. That will now be optional under the new policies. It mirrors a change made by ride-hailing service Uber after the complaints of its women employees prompted an internal investigation concluding its rank had been poisoned by rampant sexual harassment

— AP