San Francisco, Nov 7 (IANS): Google's parent firm Alphabet has launched an investigation into how its executives have handled charges of misconduct and sexual harassment.

This comes after a string of reports over the past year on sexual harassment by high-level Google and Alphabet executives including the behaviour of Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, the media has reported.

Alphabet's board of directors has opened an investigation into how executives at the company have handled misconduct claims... An independent subcommittee has been formed -- and a law firm hired -- to look into the issues, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday quoting CNBC.

Earlier in January, company shareholders had sued Alphabet for allegedly covering up the scandals.

The legal action is also believed to have been triggered by the way that the tech giant handled misconduct allegations made against former Android head Andy Rubin and ex-search head Amit Singhal.

Rubin, who has since co-founded the consumer electronic products startup Essential, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Still, it infuriated Google employees who learned nearly a year later in a New York Times investigation that he'd negotiated a $90 million severance pay package on his way out of the door, the TechCrunch report added.