Ex-Google workers say firings for protesting Israel contract were illegal

A group of workers at Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab have filed a complaint with a US labour board claiming the tech company unlawfully fired about 50 employees for protesting its cloud contract with the Israeli government.

The single-page complaint filed late Monday with the US National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) alleges that by firing the workers, Google interfered with their rights under US labour law to advocate for better working conditions.

Google this month said it had fired 28 employees who disrupted work at unspecified office locations while protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract jointly awarded to Google and Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab to supply the Israeli government with cloud services. The company last week said that about 20 more workers had been fired for protesting the contract while in the office.

In a statement on Tuesday, Google said the workers' conduct was "completely unacceptable" and made other employees feel threatened and unsafe.

“We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in disruption inside our buildings," the company said.

The workers claim the project supports Israel's development of military tools. Google has said the Nimbus contract "is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."