The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, should be considered a joint employer for a group of YouTube Music contractors. Workers are currently trying to organize with the Alphabet Workers Union, and the NLRB’s decision could mean the tech giant has to bargain with them if they vote to unionize in the next election.
The workers are directly employed by a company called Cognizant, which acts as a subcontractor to Alphabet. However, the NLRB believes that Google has sufficient control over your “benefits, hours of work, supervision, and direction of work” that it counts as a partial employer. according Bloomberg.
“We are proud to win a landmark victory not only for us, but for workers across the country,” said Sam Regan, a union organizer and contractor for YouTube Music, quoted in an AWU press release. “Tech companies in particular have innovated new ways to deny responsibility for the livelihood of their workers through outsourcing, gig work and other poor labor practices.”
For its part, Alphabet intends to appeal the NLRB’s decision. “We simply do not control the terms of employment or the working conditions of these workers,” spokeswoman Courtenay Mencini said. Bloomberg.
In addition to the union campaign and the fight to have Alphabet recognized as a joint employer, the contractors went on strike in February to protest the return-to-office orders, the first strike at the company, according to AWU. The dates of the union elections have not yet been publicly announced.