Ex-Google Workers Sue Company

Three former employees of Google have teamed up in a lawsuit against the company, claiming that Google’s motto “Don’t be evil” amounts to a contractual obligation that they have violated. According to the suit, the three former software engineers at Google, Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman, and Paul Duke, signed conduct rules that included a “Don’t be evil” provision. In the suit, the three ex-employees said they thought they were behaving in accordance with that principle when they organized Google employees against controversial projects, such as work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, however, this was not the case as Google never publicly committed to not work with the CBP.

The trio’s lawyer, Laurie Burgess, stated: “There are all sorts of contract terms that a jury is required to interpret: ‘don’t be evil’ is not so ‘out there as to be unenforceable. Since Google’s contract tells employees that they can be fired for failing to abide by the motto, ‘don’t be evil,’ it must have meaning.”

Source: NPR