Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing
  • Home
  • Hot Topics
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Big Law
  • Small Law
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing
No Result
View All Result
Home Hot Topics

Google violated its ‘don’t be evil’ code when it fired 3 outspoken employees abiding by mandate, suit says

Daily Legal Briefing by Daily Legal Briefing
December 2, 2021
in Hot Topics
0
Google violated its ‘don’t be evil’ code when it fired 3 outspoken employees abiding by mandate, suit says
4
SHARES
33
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


  1. Home
  2. Daily News
  3. Google violated its ‘don’t be evil’ code…

Contracts

Google violated its ‘don’t be evil’ code when it fired 3 outspoken employees abiding by mandate, suit says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 1, 2021, 10:03 am CST

Google headquarters

Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. Photo from Shutterstock.

A lawsuit filed Monday accuses Google of breaching its contract with three employees by firing them for complying with the company’s “don’t be evil” mandate in its code of conduct.

The employees allege that they were fulfilling their contractual duties when they protested the company’s software trial with the Trump administration’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which was separating families seeking asylum in the United States. Yet Google fired the trio for adhering to the directive, the lawsuit says.

Google also breached an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing when it materially altered a joint contractual commitment to “don’t be evil” by punishing the employees, who called out conduct they thought was inhumane or “evil,” the suit says.

The suit also alleges: The employees relied on the “don’t be evil” commitment to their detriment, Google slandered one of the employees by suggesting that she shared confidential documents with the media, and Google violated California public policy by firing the employees.

Google had said the employees were fired for accessing information outside the scope of their jobs. The employees say, however, they obtained information about the software trial from information available to all Google employees, and they warned others to keep information about the documents internal to Google employees.

Ars Technica, Vice, Bloomberg via the Mercury News and NPR are among the publications with coverage of the suit, filed in California state court in Santa Clara County.

The plaintiffs are Paul Duke, Sophie Waldman and Rebecca Rivers. They were hired in August 2011, January 2018 and February 2019, respectively, to work as software engineers at Google. Their firings are also being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.

“Don’t be evil” was long a Google motto, according to Vice. The company didn’t mention the motto when it announced that it was renaming renamed itself Alphabet but kept it as part of its conduct code.

Then in May 2018, Google moved “don’t be evil” to the end of its conduct code and removed part of the description. The axed material had said “don’t be evil” is “about providing our users unbiased access to information” and “also about doing the right thing more generally—following the law, acting honorably and treating co-workers with courtesy and respect.”

“The Google Code of Conduct is one of the ways we put ‘don’t be evil’ into practice,” the jettisoned material said. “It’s built around the recognition that everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct.”

The current version of the conduct code mentions “don’t be evil” in this single, last sentence: “And remember … don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right—speak up!”

NPR spoke with Laurie Burgess, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, who said courts are capable of interpreting the term “evil.”

“There are all sorts of contract terms that a jury is required to interpret,” she said. “ ‘Don’t be evil’ is not so ‘out there’ as to be unenforceable.”





Click to Read Original Article

Previous Post

Lawmakers send three Biden picks for EPA to full Senate

Next Post

Partner pay watch: DHS nominee Wainstein discloses $13 mln in Davis Polk compensation

Daily Legal Briefing

Daily Legal Briefing

Related Posts

Judge imposes default judgment against former Littler Mendelson client for ‘subversive approach to discovery’
Hot Topics

5th Circuit tells lawyer it is ‘often advisable to read the court’s orders,’ upholds $1,250 sanction

by Daily Legal Briefing
April 12, 2022
Law firm’s managing partner had a ‘fixation’ with employee surveillance, wiretap suit says
Hot Topics

Law firm’s managing partner had a ‘fixation’ with employee surveillance, wiretap suit says

by Daily Legal Briefing
April 12, 2022
Law school applicants are down, for now, for the first time since 2018
Hot Topics

Following a boost in 2021, national average score for February 2022 MBE drops

by Daily Legal Briefing
April 12, 2022
Google violated its ‘don’t be evil’ code when it fired 3 outspoken employees abiding by mandate, suit says
Hot Topics

Google’s ‘privileged’ email labeling, said to prevent lawsuit disclosure, was ‘eyebrow raising,’ judge says

by Daily Legal Briefing
April 11, 2022
New law allows this state’s judges to personally solicit campaign donations; ethics opinion adds wrinkle
Hot Topics

New law allows this state’s judges to personally solicit campaign donations; ethics opinion adds wrinkle

by Daily Legal Briefing
April 11, 2022
Next Post
Partner pay watch: DHS nominee Wainstein discloses $13 mln in Davis Polk compensation

Partner pay watch: DHS nominee Wainstein discloses $13 mln in Davis Polk compensation

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Premium Content

11-year-old girl tells Biden why she should be nominated to Supreme Court

Win for storage locker robber; Cosby victory; Thomas on Section 230

March 9, 2022
Law School Student Heads To Fox News To Whine About Vaccinations

Appeals Court Tosses Stupid Lawsuit Filed By Anti-Vaxxer Claiming Federal Government Made Twitter Ban Her Account

December 31, 2022
The Spotlight Is On The Anonymous Donor Who Gave The World ASSLaw

The Spotlight Is On The Anonymous Donor Who Gave The World ASSLaw

September 8, 2022

Browse by Category

  • Big Law
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Hot Topics
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
  • Small Law

About US

Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing.
Online coverage of breaking legal news and current law headlines from around the US. Top stories, videos, insight, and in-depth analysis.

Categories

  • Big Law
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Hot Topics
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
  • Small Law

Recent Updates

  • New Jersey Officially Rolls Back Mental Health, Addiction Questions From Its Bar Exam Application
  • Delaware State Police Pay $50,000 To Man Troopers Ticketed For Flipping Them Off
  • AI Update: Public Unease, Another Author Suit, Is Your AI Conscious?

© 2021 Daily Legal Briefing | Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines

No Result
View All Result
  • Contact Us
  • Home

© 2021 Daily Legal Briefing | Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?