Google Reforms Sexual Misconduct Rules

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google GOOGL is promising to be more forceful and open about its handling of sexual misconduct cases, a week after high-paid engineers and others walked out in protest over its male-dominated culture.

CEO Sundar Pichai spelled out the concessions in an email sent Thursday to Google employees. On Nov. 1, thousands of the tech giant’s workers abandoned their cubicles to protest past cases of alleged sexual harassment and other misconduct involving men.

The reforms are the latest fallout from a broader backlash against men’s exploitation of their female subordinates. The movement has spawned the “MeToo” hashtag as a sign of unity and a call for change.

The company will no longer require mandatory arbitration of sexual misconduct allegations and will provide more details about sexual misconduct cases in internal reports.