Google boss has message to employees planning walkout over treatment of sex-harassment cases

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday said that employees who plan to walk out of the company in protest — following accusations leadership covered up claims of sexual harassment — have the tech giant's support.

In a statement to Fox News, Pichai said the company on Tuesday "let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate."

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The 46-year-old CEO said that engineers "have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward," and that Google is turning their "ideas into action."

It was reported earlier this week that more than 200 employees planned to walk out on Thursday in protest. While it's not immediately clear what demands employees plan to make as part of their walkout, one employee told Bloomberg that their list of requests will be to help those "who might be affected by sexual harassment or power dynamics at work."

The demonstration comes in response to a New York Times report published Oct. 25 that claimed Google gave Android creator Andy Rubin a $90 million exit package after he was accused of forcing an employee, with whom he had been having an affair, of "performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013."

Rubin denied the claim on Twitter, claiming the allegations reported were "part of a smear campaign to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle."

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Pichai sent a company-wide email following the report, saying Google has made several changes in recent years that included firing dozens of people for sexual harassment, "including 13 who were senior managers and above."

He added that Google updated its policy to ensure vice presidents and senior vice presidents "disclose any relationship with a co-worker regardless of reporting line or presence of conflict."

Fox News' Mike Lundin contributed to this report.

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