Contract staff at Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc., responsible for enhancing Google's support pages, search engine results, and AI chatbot, have voted in favor of unionizing, according to a recent Monday election. The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) confirmed that 26 out of 28 eligible employees supported the union. This decision may lead to a legal dispute over their employment status with Alphabet Inc.
These contract workers, technically employed by Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Plc, were involved in writing Google Help articles and developing the Bard AI chatbot. This significant development comes after what they claim were retaliatory layoffs in August. The union was initially announced by 118 Accenture workers in June, with the aim of seeking better assignments, improved pay, benefits, and paid time off.
In August, following the layoffs of 80 Accenture workers, the union lodged a complaint with the NLRB. They alleged that these layoffs were retaliatory and illegal. Google is currently appealing an NLRB ruling from September that it's a joint employer of Accenture contractors—an appeal that could shield Google from legal liability for the layoffs if successful.
Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini stated that Google doesn't object to Accenture workers unionizing and argued that Google isn't a joint employer as it doesn't control their employment terms or conditions. An Accenture spokesperson confirmed they will continue participating in the NLRB process and respect employees' right to form or join unions.
The contractors were recruited for what was referred to as a "top secret project," which was later revealed to be Bard—a product designed by Google to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Workers were assigned to fact-check this large language model's prompt responses and engineer their own answers to theoretical prompts. When concerns about inadequate training or resources were raised, the work was reassigned to lower-paid workers based in Manila.
This is not the first instance of unionization efforts among Alphabet's contractors. In April, YouTube contractors employed by Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) also voted to unionize. However, Google decided to downsize its Cognizant workforce soon after. Three laid-off workers filed a complaint to the NLRB against Google and Cognizant, alleging their layoffs were in response to the unionization effort.
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