By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google is dealing with a second grievance from a U.S. labor board claiming that it’s the employer of contract staff and should cut price with their union, the company mentioned on Monday.
The grievance issued by the Nationwide Labor Relations Board final week claims that Google is a “joint employer” of about 50 San Francisco-based content material creation staff employed by IT agency Accenture Flex who voted to affix the Alphabet Staff Union in 2023, in accordance with board spokeswoman Kayla Blado.
Blado mentioned the board is individually investigating an October grievance by the union that Google and Accenture Flex made modifications to working situations with out bargaining first.
A discovering that Google is the joint employer of staff offered by Accenture Flex would pressure the corporate to the bargaining desk and make it chargeable for any violations of federal labor regulation.
The labor board in January 2024 dominated in a separate case that Google was required to cut price with a team of workers at YouTube Music, which it owns, who have been employed by a unique staffing agency. A U.S. appeals court docket will hear Google’s attraction of that call later this month.
The tech large has mentioned it doesn’t exert sufficient management over contract staff to be thought of their joint employer. The corporate final 12 months eradicated a $15-an-hour minimal wage for contractors and made different modifications designed to keep away from having to cut price with unions.
The brand new grievance might be heard by an administrative decide whose choice may be reviewed by the five-member board.
Google and the Alphabet Staff Union, an affiliate of the Communication Staff of America union, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Google has confronted an uptick in labor organizing in the USA and overseas lately, together with a collection of employee protests over the corporate’s enterprise and employment insurance policies.
The usual for figuring out when companies are joint employers of contract and franchise staff has been in flux for the reason that Obama administration.
A 2024 NLRB rule that made it simpler to carry firms liable as joint employers was struck down in court docket, and appointees of Republican President-elect Donald Trump are anticipated to interchange it with a extra business-friendly normal.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Modifying by Alexia Garamfalvi and Invoice Berkrot)
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