US Contract Workers Sue Google To Negotiate With Their Union

Lately, regulators have not been Google’s only adversaries in court. The company has also faced a lawsuit in the labor field. Now, Google is about to go through another lawsuit from US contract workers who claim that the Mountain View giant is actually their employer, so it must negotiate with their contractors’ union in the event of any potential change to working conditions.

Contract workers say Google should negotiate with their contractors’ union

Google not only has direct employees working on its products and services. There are some, such as AI-based developments, that require even more staff for tasks such as output evaluation and more. For similar cases, Google uses contractors who rent them external personnel. That said, a group of these workers considers that Google qualifies as a “joint employer” along with the contractor.

The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Google to challenge its labor relationship with 50 San Francisco-based content creation workers. These workers were provided by contractor Accenture Flex, an IT firm. However, Kayla Blado, board spokesperson, says that these workers voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union in 2023. She also revealed that they are investigating potential changes in working conditions without negotiating with their union first.

If the ruling is unfavorable to Google, the firm would have to sit down and negotiate as it would with its own employees. The firm would also face potential sanctions if violations of federal labor law were found.

Google already faced a similar case

Google faced a similar situation with a decision unfavorable to the company. At the beginning of 2024, a judge ruled that the company had to negotiate directly with a group of workers at YouTube Music. These workers had been employed by a different staffing firm. That said, the ruling is not yet final, as Google will have the opportunity to appeal in late January.

It is possible that the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the US will be positive for the firm. The new administration would modify the NLRB to give more guarantees to companies. Additionally, there is precedent for repealing an NLRB rule that made it easier for employees to hold companies accountable for their contracts even if they came from outside firms.