The Silicon Valley giant had ordered employees to stay silent on the landmark case before reaching a settlement with a workers’ union over the issue.
When Google lost its landmark antitrust trial in August, Kent Walker, its top lawyer, reminded employees, for the third time, that they were not allowed to discuss the case with one another or anyone outside the company.
On Friday afternoon, Google rescinded the command as part of a settlement with the Alphabet Workers Union, a group representing some of its employees and contractors, according to an email Google sent to workers that was viewed by The New York Times. Alphabet is the parent company of Google.
The company told employees it would not “announce or maintain overbroad rules or policies that restrict your right to comment, internally or externally,” about how the antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s search engine might affect the terms and conditions of their employment.
Google’s change of tune was part of a settlement overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. The union had filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the N.L.R.B. concerning Mr. Walker’s note in August.
The agreement is another blow to Google’s corporate policies designed to maintain secrecy, which have been scrutinized amid the search case brought by the Justice Department. It also undercut Google’s strategy to keep its business humming during the lawsuit — to have employees ignore the antitrust battle and remain focused on their work.
Mr. Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, first told employees not to discuss the case when it was filed in October 2020, according to an email viewed by The Times.