Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google is under investigation by the US National Labor Relations Board, CNBC reported on Monday.
The investigation follows the recent firings of four former Google employees named Laurence Berland, Paul Duke, Rebecca Rivers, and Sophie Waldman. All four former employees were involved in internal activism during their time at Google, and they encouraged their colleagues to join in protest over issues like the company’s plan to build a censored version of its search engine in China or its bids on Defense Department contracts. If Google is found to have fired these employees in relation to their activism, it could be found in violation of federal labor law.
The four employees filed a charge with the NLRB on December 5th alleging unfair…