Google Full Time Employees Petition Management To Pay Cheated Temps

September 16, 2021 — Dozens of Google full time employees signed a petition addressed to Google’s executives calling for tech giant to immediately pay back all temps, vendors and contractors — referred to as TVCs — who were knowingly underpaid by Google.

The petition, sent to Google top executives  Adrienne Crowther, Deepak Negi, Kent Walker, Ruth Porat and Sundar Pichai, also demands the company create an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers.

More than 140 Google employees had signed the petition by late Wednesday, Business Insider reported.

It follows a report published Friday in The Guardian and The New York Times that found Google has been illegally underpaying thousands of temporary workers in at least 16 countries. Google deliberately delayed correcting the pay rates for more than two years as it attempted to cover up the problem, according to reporting on the company’s own internal communications.

The review of internal Google documents and emails indicated Google executives have been aware since at least May 2019 that the company was failing to comply with local laws in the UK, Europe and Asia requiring temporary workers be paid equal rates to full-time employees performing similar work, the publications reported. Many of these counties also have laws limiting the amount of time an employee can be employed as temporary before they must be made a full-time employee.

“We believe that all workers at Google should receive the full wages they are legally entitled to and have earned,” the petition states. “We demand that Google immediately pay back all Temps, Vendors and Contractors (TVCs) who have been knowingly underpaid by Google.”

The petition also says Google segregates its workers into a “two-tiered workforce” that provides full-time employees high pay, excellent benefits and presents itself as a benevolent employer.

A second tier of at least 130,000 TVCs are underpaid, offered unaffordable healthcare by their contracting companies, barred from Google-sponsored events. TVCs can be fired for publicly claiming that they work for Google, the petition alleges.

“Recognizing Google’s legal obligation to fairly compensate workers for their labor, we request that you immediately pay back all Temps, Vendors and Contractors (TVCs) who have been knowingly underpaid by Google,” the petition states. “We demand that Google create an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers and end its two-tiered perma-temp system.”

Things have long been unsettled in Google’s alleged tech employee nirvana and temp pay parity issue is the most recent labor dispute erupting from Google’s highly educated and skilled full time workforce, which is outnumbered by temps, The Guardian reportes.

During the past fee years Google’s full time employees have organized and protested the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases, plans for a censored search engine for China, contracts with the US department of defense for drone technology, treatment of TVCs, and allegations of retaliation against worker activists.