New Delhi: The YouTube Music team, consisting of 43 contractors, found out that they no longer had a job on Friday. The workers had been asking for better pay and benefits for a year. The team of contractors was employed by Google as well as its subcontractor Cognizant. Google, meanwhile, says that it wasn’t responsible for the layoffs, Cognizant was.
In a video that is being widely circulated on social media, a YouTube data analyst named Jack Benedict was urging the Austin City Council to support his union’s negotiations with Google. While addressing the council, he learned that his 43-person team of contractors, including himself, had been laid off. Benedict’s reaction on camera went viral and has gained a lot of attention.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Benedict said that he was “speechless, shocked and didn’t know what to do.” His main feeling, he added, was “anger.”
The laid-off workers believe the sudden job loss might be retaliation for their advocacy. Many fear losing their homes due to the unexpected layoffs.The workers also said that they had received no prior notice and the layoffs were a complete surprise.
On the other hand, Google said that it wasn’t responsible for the layoffs as the contract workers were employed by Cognizant.
A Google spokesperson said in an email statement to The Verge, “Contracts with our suppliers across the country routinely end on their natural expiry date.”
Cognizant, meanwhile, said that their contract ended “naturally.”
The company said that the layoffs were a part of their business operations and that the impacted employees would get seven weeks of paid time to explore other roles within the company.
The YouTube Music contract workers, employed by both Google and Cognizant, had voted to unionise last year, seeking better pay, benefits, and flexible return-to-office policies.
Google had refused to negotiate with the contract workers since they were “not Google employees.”
The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) had deemed Google’s refusal to negotiate with YouTube Music workers illegal and introduced a rule making it tougher for companies to avoid responsibility in unionization efforts by third-party contractors.
