Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World

Google sacks 48 staff over sexual harassment, CEO says

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, pictured last year (Picture: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images)

Google has sacked 48 people for sexual harassment in the last two years, it has emerged.

The terminations included 13 senior managers.

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, made the announcement in an email to all employees on Thursday.

The email, obtained by CNBC, was in response to a New York Times story that the tech giant had protected Android creator Andy Rubin despite misconduct allegations. Mr Rubin denied the accusations.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, pictured in May, said 48 people have been sacked from the company over sexual harassment in the last two years (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

Mr Pichai’s email, co-signed by vice president of people operations Eileen Naughton, read: “We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace. We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action.

“In recent years, we've made a number of changes, including taking an increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority. In the last two years, 48 people have been terminated for sexual harassment, including 13 who were senior managers and above. None of these individuals received an exit package.”

The email goes on: “We are committed to ensuring that Google is a workplace where you can feel safe to do your best work, and where there are serious consequences for anyone who behaves inappropriately.”

Mr Pichai added the company now provides "confidential channels" to report inappropriate behaviour.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.