Around 80 out of the 120 subcontractors who recently voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union have been laid off. The employees, who handled content creation for Google projects such as the Help support pages, consider both Google and Accenture to be joint employers. The team, consisting of graphic designers and writers, had announced plans to unionize in early June but received layoff notices weeks later. - They had agreed to join the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA) to initiate contract negotiations with Google and Accenture.
- Since they are joint contractors under Accenture, the workers aren't protected under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
- The National Labor Relations Board is currently looking into whether the workers should be classified as joint employees of Google and Accenture. Additionally, the board may investigate allegations of retaliation by Google.
Subcontractor Casey Padron expressed concerns about the move being retaliatory. - Earlier this year. Google's parent Alphabet eliminated 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, the largest round of layoffs in its 25-year history.
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