Tech giant Google has fired 48 employees, including 13 senior managers, over sexual harassment claims.

In an open letter to staff, Sundar Pichai, Google chief executive, said the company was taking a hard stance against sexual misconduct or inappropriate behaviour.

The letter follows in repose to a New York Times (NYT) report that Google had protected three executives accused of sexual misconduct over the past decade, including android creator Andy Rubin.

Rubin received a $90 million exit package even though he was facing misconduct charges. A spokesman for Rubin denied the allegations and insisted he had decided to leave the company in 2014 to launch Playground, his own venture capital firm and technology incubator.

Pichai’s open letter acknowledged the NYT story, he wrote that the article was “difficult to read”. He went on to emphasise Google’s serious commitment to providing a safe and inclusive workplace for its employees.

The letter continued: “We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action,” adding that no employees dismissed in the past two years had received an exit package.

The letter also said that Google had updated its policy to require all vice presidents and senior vice presidents to disclose any relationship with a co-worker, regardless of whether they report to each other. This new clause is likely to be in response to past behaviour by senior staff members. Several have had affairs with subordinates or have been accused of sexually coercing and groping co-workers.