Around 80 contractual staff members who recently joined the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA) and are part of Google Help, have been notified of their job cuts. This comes after a group of 120 contract employees announced their unionization effort in June. However, two-thirds of the workers received layoff notices shortly after, leaving only 40 employees remaining. The affected team consists of writers and graphic designers responsible for creating content for Google’s support pages.
Julia Nagatsu Granstrom, a Senior Writer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, revealed that 80 out of their 120 recently unionized colleagues at Google Help were laid off last week. The decision to unionize was prompted by the reassignment of the workers from their usual tasks to work on Google Bard, an AI-driven conversational software, which differed significantly from their previous responsibilities of creating content for Google’s help and support pages.
The unionized workers exercised their right to organize and demanded negotiations on various key demands, including layoff protections, with both Google and its subcontractor, Accenture.
Meanwhile, John Seals, a team leader working on the Google Help project in South San Jose, discovered that his last day of work would be in November. Seals suspects that his termination was driven by cost-cutting measures as Accenture has been hiring more team members in the Philippines, where labor costs are lower. He finds the timing of the decision highly questionable.
In a separate incident, a group of Google contractors known as raters, who evaluate Google search results, were terminated after expressing their intent to join a union. These individuals often come across disturbing content as part of their job. However, after filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, they were reinstated with back pay. The National Labor Relations Board is now conducting a hearing this week to address the issue of joint employment for contractors.
Overall, these recent developments highlight the complexities and challenges faced by contract workers at Google and the need for stronger protections and rights for these employees.
Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
Alex Smith is a writer and editor with over 10 years of experience. He has written extensively on a variety of topics, including technology, business, and personal finance. His work has been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, and he is also the author of two books. Alex is passionate about helping people learn and grow, and he believes that writing is a powerful tool for communication and understanding.
