250 Google employees walk out of Switzerland office to protest layoffs: Report

Google's parent company Alphabet announced in January plans to lay off more than 12,000 employees.

About 250 employees of Google's Zurich office walked out to protest the company’s decision to cut its workforce by 6 percent leading to thousands of layoffs.

The workers walked away from their desks before lunchtime and assembled with placards outside one of two Google offices in the Swiss city, Bloomberg reported. The employees were supported by their trade union Syndicom.

Although the 250  protesters represented a small proportion of Google’s approximately 5,000 Zurich-based employees, it is rare for workers from tech companies to stage a walkout. The incident follows similar protests in New York and California earlier this month over job cuts, the publication reported.

The protesting workers called on Google to engage in dialogue with an employee committee, as dictated by Swiss law, about alternatives to job cuts. They also demanded support for foreign nationals whose residency is tied to their employment and sought a commitment from the company to refrain from further job cuts, union spokesman Dominik Fitze told Bloomberg.

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“We know this is an uncertain time for our employees and we are working hard to share updates as soon as we can in line with local labor law," a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg. “However, given the ongoing process, we are not in the position to comment further on the matter."

Google's parent company Alphabet announced in January plans to lay off more than 12,000 employees. With this, it joined other tech giants including Meta, and Amazon in scaling back operations amid a weakening global economy and rising inflation.

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