Kathryn Spiers, 21, says she was terminated on Friday simply for notifying Google employees of their right to organize

Google has fired a security engineer - its fifth in less than a month - after she used an internal alert system to remind colleagues that they had the right to take collective action.

Kathryn Spiers, 21, says she was terminated on Friday simply for notifying Google employees of their right to organize.

She created a 'pop up' that directed her co-workers to a list of worker rights if they visited an internal policy page or the website of a firm involved in attempts to break unions elsewhere that was recently consulted by Google.

Spiers, who is trans and was a member of the security team recently working on the Chrome browser, said she had authority to use the system to alert employees to new policies.

In this case, she said was drawing attention to the company's declaration that workers could organize and discuss various workplace issues without retribution.

Google posted a list of such rights in September, settling a complaint brought by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

She created a 'pop up' that directed her co-workers to a list of worker rights if they visited an internal policy page or the website of a firm involved in attempts to break unions elsewhere that was recently consulted by Google. The pop up is pictured above

'The issue here is that a security engineer misused a security and privacy tool to create a pop-up that was neither about security nor privacy,' a Google spokeswoman said.

'This person did that without authorization and without a business justification.'

Spiers was suspended the same day that four activist colleagues were fired during Thanksgiving week.

She was fired after repeated questioning by Google staff.

Spiers details her firing in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

'I was fired last week by Google for organizing. All I did was make a popup to share the labor notice Google has to share with its workers. 3 hours later mgmt came to my desk, took my phone/laptop, escorted me away. I never got to say goodbye,' she wrote.

Alphabet Inc's Google has fired a security engineer after she used an internal alert system to remind colleagues that they had the right to take collective action

'I was involved with past organizing at Google. This includes protesting Google developing drones for the military and speaking out against Google’s work for CBP —tech is not amoral.

'Google claims to value transparency. It's billed itself as a moral, open company since the beginning, but recent actions have eroded this culture. When this was pointed out to management, it doubled down and retaliated against organizers.'

The Communications Workers of America (CWA), a union that filed an NLRB complaint on behalf of the other four fired workers, filed a new complaint late on Monday for Spiers.

The union argued that the firing was illegal because it aimed 'to quell Spiers and other employees from asserting their right to engage in concerted protected activities'.

Google said it would have acted the same if Spiers had posted something else.

Google said the action was worse because Spiers used an emergency mechanism to install the pop-up warning without a second person approving it.

Rebecca Rivers, a software engineer based in Colorado, was among the four fired by Google during Thanksgiving

Rivers shared this tweet announcing her termination on Twitter

She claims she was targeted for her activism (above) to stop the tech giant from working Customs and Border Protection

The recent firings have galvanized some employees into doing more to rally one another and protest company policies, workers said, and they drew in the CWA after many months of actions.

But other employees said their co-workers were intimidated and speaking out less.

Rebecca Rivers, a software engineer based in Colorado, was among the four fired by Google during Thanksgiving.

She claims she was targeted for her activism to stop the tech giant from working Customs and Border Protection.

Google said Rivers and the three others were fired because they committed 'clear and repeated violations' of data security policies that were greater than their claims that they had simply glanced at calendars and other files not pertinent to their field during work.

They allegedly conducted 'systematic searches' for employees' materials and shared information such as calendar screen shots and other details beyond their jobs and set notifications for what people were doing and when, including medical appointments.