Alphabet announced on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with its shareholders regarding dealing with cases of sexual harassment in its subsidiary, Google, which stipulates new pledges and regulations, after Months of internal investigations and prosecutions against the board of directors.
The agreement provides that Google will invest $ 310 million to promote diversity, equality and more inclusive policies.
The most prominent thing in the agreement is to give employees the right from now on to file a complaint to the judiciary in the event of harassment or sexual assault, rather than being obligated to resort to private organizations specialized in arbitration, which is preferred by major technology companies.
Alphabet Vice President Eileen Noton said in an email to employees, "In recent years, we have taken a more stringent approach to inappropriate behavior and have worked to support the people who report them."
In early 2019, Alphabet´s board of directors formed a special committee to assess the accusations of contributors in a number of cases related to sexual harassment cases.
Some shareholders accused the group of seeking to conceal the complaints and cover the inappropriate behavior of some of its officials, including the creator of "Android" Andy Robin, who left the group in 2014 and received compensation of $ 90 million.
In November 2018, thousands of Google employees stopped working at the company´s headquarters in California, as well as in Singapore and London, in protest over the way in which cases of sexual harassment were dealt with within the company.
This unprecedented move in the company´s history was organized after it announced the dismissal of 48 people, including 13 senior managers, during the previous two years due to accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior.
The agreement, announced on Friday, included a ban on giving compensation to people whom the company disposes of due to charges of this kind.
