Google Pro-Palestinian Workers File Class Suit Over Firings (1)

Google LLC violated federal and various state anti-bias laws when it fired workers for participating in a sit-in supporting their Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim co-workers, a federal class action filed Friday charges.

The April 16, 2024, events were part of a “Day of Action” at Google campuses in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif., and was organized by a group of technology industry workers called No Tech for Apartheid, the US District Court for the Northern District of California lawsuit alleges. The group demanded prior to the event for Google to drop its cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government “that had been confirmed to support Israeli military operations in Gaza,” according to the suit.

The Day of Action sit-ins were also held to oppose Google’s discriminatory harassment of its Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim workers, the suit says. No Tech for Apartheid had likewise previously demanded that the company “halt its continuous empowerment of hate, abuse, and retaliation against those who speak out” against “Israel’s genocide” and called on the company to establish a working environment where Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim employees aren’t subject to such abuse, the suit asserted.

The proposed nationwide class action is led by nine former employees who served as software engineers or operations or talent equity managers in California, Washington, or Texas. Google’s “Project Nimbus” contract with Israel has compromised workplace safety and health, the suit charges.

The group’s demands were read over livestream and on-site during the April 16 sit-ins, according to the suit.

By the end of April, all the plaintiffs had received notices of termination, allegedly for creating safety concerns for their coworkers. No employees who counter-protested on the Day of Action were similarly disciplined, the suit alleges.

Google’s retaliatory actions violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, New York state, California, and Washington laws, and New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle laws, the suit asserts.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the proposed class, attorneys’ fees and costs, and injunctive relief that corrects the effects of Google’s wrongful conduct and permanently restrains the company from further violations.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Levy Ratner PC represents the workers.

The case is Anderson v. Google LLC, N.D. Cal., No. 5:25-cv-03268, class complaint 4/11/25.