Google says staff have no right to protest its choice of clients

Google has been roiled over the past four years by a wave of activism by employees challenging management over issues including treatment of sub-contracted staff, handling of sexual harassment, and a contract with the US Customs and Border Protection agency, which some of the fired workers accessed internal information about and circulated a petition against. — AFP Relaxnews

Google employees have no legal right to protest the company’s choice of clients, the Internet giant told a judge weighing the US government’s allegations that its firings of activists violated the National Labor Relations Act.

“Even if Google had, for the sake of argument, terminated the employees for their protest activities – for protesting their choice of customers – this would not violate the Act,” Google’s attorney Al Latham said in his opening statement Tuesday at a labour board trial.