Thousands of Google staff are staging a walkout in protest at the company’s lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct.

Demonstrations at the company’s offices around the world began at 11.10am in Tokyo and are due to take place at the same time in other time zones. An image from the Singapore office showed at least 100 staff protesting.
More appeared on the streets outside Google’s Swiss office in Zurich.
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Later, Google staff were filmed walking out of the company’s offices in Dublin.

Employees are being urged to leave a flyer at their desk which reads: “I’m not at my desk because I’m walking out in solidarity with other Googlers and contractors to protest [against] sexual harassment, misconduct, lack of transparency, and a workplace culture that’s not working for everyone.”

The Walkout for Real Change protest comes a week after it emerged that Google gave a $90m severance package to Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile phone software, but concealed details of a sexual misconduct allegation that triggered his departure. Rubin has denied the allegations.

Last Thursday, the chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said Google had taken a “hard line” over sexual misconduct allegations, revealing that 48 people, including 13 senior managers, had been fired in the past two years. However, these cases were not mentioned in the company’s latest earnings figures.

Campaigners have posted a list of five demands, including an end to pay and opportunity inequality as well as greater transparency about sexual harassment.