San Francisco, Feb 22 (IANS): After facing intense protests over sexual misconduct and discrimination at workplace, Google has decided to end the forced arbitration policy for its employees.

According to a report in Axios on Thursday, the new policy will go into effect from March 21 for Google employees globally.

The decision will not open the door to bringing lawsuits over previously-settled claims, said Google.

"Employees with disputes currently in arbitration who are still employed by the company as of March 21 will be able to choose to sue instead," it added.

Google employees the world over have called for the practice to end in other cases of harassment and discrimination.

"Google appears to be meeting that demand for employees --- but the change will not apply in the same blanket way to the many contractors, vendors and temporary employees it uses," said the report.

Forced arbitration agreements require employees to waive their rights to make a legal claim in court and instead go through a private system, said TechCrunch.

Google also said it would remove mandatory arbitration from legal agreements it reaches directly with its contract and temporary workforce.

Last month, Google employees took to Twitter and Instagram to educate the public about forced arbitration

Last November, over 20,000 employees staged a walkout at Google over forced arbitration.