Google should be forced to negotiate with the contractor’s union, says the US labor center

Written by Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – Alphabet Google is facing a second complaint from a U.S. labor board that says it is an employer of contract workers and must negotiate with their union, the agency said on Monday.

A complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board last week alleges that Google is a “joint employer” of about 50 content creators in San Francisco employed by IT company Accenture Flex who voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union in 2023, according to the board. Spokesperson Kayla Blado.

Blado said the board is investigating a separate October union complaint that Google and Accenture Flex made changes to working conditions without first negotiating.

A finding that Google is a joint employer of the workers provided by Accenture Flex would force the company to come to the bargaining table and make it liable for any violations of the labor union law.

The labor board in January 2024 ruled in a separate case that Google was required to negotiate with a group of employees of YouTube Music, which it owns, who were employed by a different labor company. A US appeals court will hear Google’s appeal of that decision later this month.

The tech giant said it does not have enough control over contract workers to be considered their joint employer. The company last year ended the $15-an-hour minimum wage for contractors and made other changes designed to avoid bargaining with unions.

The new appeal will be heard by the judge who ruled the decision will be reviewed by a five-member board.

Google and the Alphabet Workers Union, which is affiliated with the Communication Workers of America union, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google has faced increased labor organizing in the United States and other countries in recent years, including a series of worker protests over the company’s business and employment policies.

The standard for determining when businesses are joint employers of contract and franchise employees has been in flux since the Obama administration.

A 2024 NLRB rule that made it easier to hold companies accountable as employers was struck down in court, and Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s appointees are expected to replace it with a more business-friendly standard.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)