Over the past 18 months, the company's workers have protested its decision to quietly develop artificial-intelligence technology for the US military and to build a censored search engine for China.
Demonstrators at the rally expressed concern over a number of Google's more recent policies, including its decision to hold fewer company-wide meetings and to roll out an internal tool that can detect when employees schedule meetings with large numbers of employees.
Berland and Rivers said Google placed them on leave for allegedly violating its policies Berland for allegedly tracking other employees' calendar meetings and Rivers for allegedly accessing and sharing sensitive documents.
Rebecca Rivers, based in Boulder, Colorado, travelled to the demonstration to protest Google's decision to put her on leave.
During Google's investigation into her supposed actions, most of the company's questions to her focused on her activism around the company's work with the US Customs and Border Patrol.
Laurence Berland, placed on indefinite leave for allegedly tracking other employees' calendars, said that the company's actions were threatening Google's open culture.
Google's treatment of Rivers and Berland is emblematic of how it has been dealing lately with internal critics of its direction and policies, said Zora Tung, a software engineer at the company.
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