FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 12, 2024
Contact:
Christopher Ho, Legal Aid at Work, cho@legalaidatwork.org, 415.593.0055
Laura Alvarenga Scalia, Legal Aid at Work, lalvarenga@legalaidatwork.org, 415.593.0059
Today, current and former employees of Cisco Systems, Inc., filed simultaneous complaints with Federal and California state workplace enforcement agencies, alleging that Cisco had unlawfully suppressed their concerns about the use of the company’s technologies in support of the Israeli military’s operations in Gaza, in violation of the company’s own policies. The complaints further allege that as a result of their advocacy, they were subjected to workplace harassment that Cisco failed to remedy or prevent, and also that Cisco violated their federally protected rights to engage in concerted activity.
“We’re filing these complaints today with sadness because Cisco, a company we respected and were proud to work for, hasn’t lived up to the values it has previously held itself to,” said one of the Cisco employees filing today’s complaints. “We had hoped to protect the Cisco brand from continued reputational damage and end the international calls to boycott Cisco products. But in suppressing our attempts to foster a dialogue on these issues, Cisco violated our rights as employees to express ourselves politically and to have a workplace free of harassment.”
Cisco is a networking hardware, software and telecommunications company headquartered in San Jose, California, that has over 90,000 employees worldwide. The Cisco employees are represented by Legal Aid at Work (“LAAW”), a nonprofit public interest law firm based in San Francisco that advocates for workers’ rights. Because they are concerned about the possibility of doxing and further workplace harassment, the employees are proceeding anonymously.
The complaints filed today allege that earlier this year, deeply concerned that Cisco was providing its technologies to Israel in support of its military campaign in Gaza in violation of its own policies, a group of primarily Palestinian, Arab and/or Muslim Cisco employees came together under the name “Bridge to Humanity” (B2H). In an Open Letter emailed to Cisco’s top leadership, B2H members stated that Cisco was “enabl[ing] Israel’s violations of international law and plausible genocide against Palestinians.” The Open Letter demanded that Cisco disclose and cease its business dealings with the Israeli military, and take other steps to adhere to its own Global Human Rights Policy, Code of Business Conduct, and international law. The letter quickly amassed more than 1,700 employee signatures. But rather than engage with B2H’s efforts to initiate a dialogue on this issue, the complaints allege that Cisco took the Open Letter down and treated it as an act of harassment. Without citing any violations of company policy, Cisco invited complaints to its employee relations office regarding any “concerning discussions” about Palestine for potential discipline. Some B2H activists have been terminated. To this day, the Open Letter remains disabled from being signed by other Cisco employees. This is despite Cisco’s own “Conscious Culture” ethic, which explicitly encourages Cisco employees to ”take action” and “ask the toughest questions around how [Cisco is] impacting society for the better” and its values of “trustworthiness and ethical conduct… among employees, suppliers, and business partners.”
Following the Open Letter’s release, Cisco employees with opposing views harassed B2H members for raising their concerns. Some posted vicious, hateful and Islamophobic messages on internal online company spaces accessible by all Cisco employees. The complaints allege these included comments celebrating the killing of Palestinian civilians, equating Palestinians with animals, or even wishing death upon all Palestinians. Still others targeted specific B2H members by name. Those comments remained unmoderated by Cisco for months; many can still be viewed in online company spaces. More ominously, when other Cisco employees improperly harvested the names of those who had signed the Open Letter—raising the possibility that its signatories could be publicly doxed—the complaints allege Cisco did not fully investigate the data breach, ignoring the alarmed pleas of B2H members to address this as a serious safety threat.
Cisco’s response to the Open Letter was a far cry from its previous public stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ+ rights, and expression of unqualified backing of Ukraine in its resistance to Russian territorial aggression.“Cisco’s actions—taking down the Open Letter, inviting disciplinary action against us, and even terminating some of us—sends the very clear message that all political speech is acceptable, except for pro-Palestinian speech,” noted another of the employees who filed today’s complaints.
The complaints filed today — with the California Labor Commissioner, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board—allege that Cisco’s actions violated B2H employees’ statutory rights to express their political views freely and without threats of retaliation, to work in an environment free of national origin or religious harassment, and to engage in protected activity for purposes of “mutual aid and protection.”
“Cisco squelched political activities by B2H that the California Labor Code plainly protects. Yet at the same time, Cisco freely engaged in its own advocacy speech on similar political matters, such as Ukraine and BLM. This selective viewpoint discrimination makes Cisco’s violation of the Labor Code particularly egregious,” said Christopher Ho, director of LAAW’s National Origin and Immigrants’ Rights Program and the lead attorney representing the B2H employees. Added LAAW staff attorney Laura Alvarenga Scalia, “Cisco has failed to protect B2H members from egregious harassment and threats to their personal and digital safety, only compounding the injustice of their situation.”
If you are a worker who has encountered discrimination or retaliation by your employer for engaging in political activity, you may contact Legal Aid at Work at (415) 404-9093 or visit us at legalaidatwork.org.