Leading up to the June 3 annual meeting of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, investors have filed a shareholder proposal asking the company’s Board of Directors to evaluate its whistleblower protection policy, and to improve company practices to ensure the protection of employees who raise concerns about human rights abuses and other threats to the public interest.
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Shareholders are concerned by increasing evidence suggesting that Google’s response to whistleblowers is extremely inadequate, resulting in a loss of top talent, an erosion of the brand image, and a threat to shareholder value. The shareholder resolution, organized by Open MIC alongside Trillium Asset Management, a sustainable and responsible investment firm, urges the company’s leadership to check that the company is stewarding business decisions in ways that avoid legal, reputational, and human rights risks — including by facilitating and respecting worker voice as a mechanism to mitigate such risk.
Jonas Kron, Senior Vice President of Trillium Asset Management: “This next period of time will be pivotal for Alphabet. As it strives to manage its human rights impacts, its human capital, and its product ambitions, strong whistleblower protections can help. The company should protect its employees when they speak up and tell management ‘don’t be evil’.”
Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC: “While Google employees express outrage about the possibility of contributing to projects that could equip authoritarian governments or dictators — at home or abroad — with tools to carry out surveillance and violence, it appears that Google itself runs the risk of becoming an authoritarian dictator: silencing workers no matter the cost to the public, and no matter the potential cost to shareholders. Shareholders are asking Alphabet’s Board to commit to sound whistleblower protection practices in the best interest of employees, the public, and the business.”
Google has been criticized by both current and former employees for retaliating against workers who have voiced concerns over a range of issues, from a refusal to work on projects that could threaten human rights, to outrage over a systemic workplace culture of harassment, toxicity, and hostility against women, trans and nonbinary Googlers and employees of color. In 2019, the company faced repeated employee protests, numerous public resignations by prominent engineers, an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board, and media backlash after firing four employees who held leadership roles in internal organizing efforts. The headline of one January 2020 Newsweek article read: “Google Used to Tell Workers, ‘Don’t Be Evil.’ Now It Just Wants Them to Be Quiet, Former Top Exec Says.”
The shareholders argue that whistleblower protection is a clear and prudent best practice to avoid risk. Research shows that whistleblower protection practices, including those that explicitly prevent retaliation, is associated with fewer government fines and material lawsuits for companies.
View the full shareholder proposal here.
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Open MIC
Michael Connor: (212) 875-9381 or mconnor@openmic.org