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Facebook Ends Forced Arbitration for Sexual Harassment Claims

Google earlier this week changed some policies on sexual harassment, including making arbitration optional in claims.

Facebook Ends Forced Arbitration for Sexual Harassment Claims
Employees work inside the “War Room” ahead of Brazil’s runoff election at Facebook Inc. headquarters in Menlo Park, California (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., joining Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp., said it would not force employees who filed sexual harassment claims to settle those cases in private arbitration.

The company will allow employees to pursue those claims in court if they choose, a Facebook spokesman said in an email. Also on Friday, the company published an updated policy on workplace relationships. It had publicly released its harassment policy last year.

Google earlier this week changed some policies on sexual harassment, including making arbitration optional in claims, after thousands of employees walked off the job Nov. 1 to protest how the tech giant handled sexual misconduct by some of its executives.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Anne VanderMey

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