Google may have an employee ‘problem’ in the US – Times of India

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced that the company would cut 12,000 jobs or 6% of its global workforce as it braces to face “difficult economic cycles.” As a result of this, a number of departments, including FuchsiaOS, and Area 120, among others, will see a thinner workforce. Now a report has claimed a group of employees staged protests in the US this week at the company’s headquarters in California and New York.
As per a report by Bloomberg, a group of employees protested outside the company’s offices in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday in a bid to attract attention to labour conditions for sub-contracted workers and to support thousands of their recently laid-off co-workers.
The second rally took place near Google’s corporate offices in New York City on Thursday. In this demonstration, nearly 50 Google employees protested shortly after its parent company Alphabet announced fourth-quarter profits of $13.6 billion.

“Google has debunked its own rationale for laying off 12,000 of our co-workers. It is clear that the menial savings the company is pocketing from laying off workers is nothing in comparison to the billions spent on stock buybacks or the billions made in profit last quarter,” Alberta Devor, a software engineer, was quoted as saying.
Alphabet union held both rallies
The report further says that Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) organised both rallies, which included both employees and sub-contractors of Google. “Today shows that some of the issues we’re talking about affect all workers regardless of what their actual job title or job status is,” Devor, who is also an AWU member, added.
Dozens of sub-contractors claimed that they were out against substandard working conditions, including “poverty wages and no benefits.” These employees claim that their pay and benefits are far below Google’s own minimum standards and benefits for direct contract workers.

These workers review content to assist in the training of the company’s AI-powered algorithms and screening YouTube clips along with searching advertisements for offensive or sensitive material, said the report.
Alphabet Q4 2022 revenue
Alphabet reported $76 billion in revenue for its fourth quarter (Q4 2022), up 1% on a year-over-year YoY basis. The company said it would take a charge of between $1.9 billion and $2.3 billion related to the layoffs of 12,000 employees.