Google employees stage walkout in protest of sexual harassment scandal (CNN)

Thousands of Google employees around the world staged a mass walkout yesterday in protest of alleged sexual harassment and discrimination within the tech giant, reports CNN.

The demonstrations, dubbed “Google Walkout,” follow an outcry over a New York Times investigation that detailed years of sexual harassment allegations by Google employees, multimillion-dollar severance packages for accused executives, and a lack of transparency over the cases. Walk-outs took place at 11:10am for different time zones around the world with the protests starting in Asia and continuing west through Europe to the United States.

The organisers are demanding that Google make five concrete changes to its company police, which include Google committing to equal pay and opportunity transparent data on the gender, race and ethnicity compensation gap, a publicly disclosed sexual harassment report and “an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and inequity”.

The fifth demand asks to elevate the Chief Diversity Officer to answer directly to the CEO and make recommendations to the Board of Directors. They are also requesting that an employee representative be appointed to the Board.