Some workers learned of the YouTube Music layoffs while testifying to the Austin city council about Google's refusal to negotiate with the union.

YouTube Music team laid off by Google while workers testified to Austin City Council about working conditions::Some workers learned of the YouTube Music layoffs while testifying to the Austin city council about Google’s refusal to negotiate with the union.

  • SuperIce@lemmy.worldEnglish
    334·
    11 months ago

    Cognizant, a professional services company that Alphabet contracted the YouTube Music team through, said in a statement that the workers were let go after their contract ended at its intended date, according to KXAN in Austin.

    A spokesperson for Google told Business Insider that Cognizant is responsible for ending the workers’ employment, not Google.

    “Contracts with our suppliers across the company routinely end on their natural expiry date, which was agreed to with Cognizant,” the company said in a statement.

    Not sure how much of the fault is from Google’s side here since the employees contracted from another company.

    • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
      67·
      11 months ago

      I am not defending Google here, but Cognizant is trash. I run a firm of specialist and a bulk of our work is cleaning up after outfits like Cognizant , Infosys, etc.

      All that said, firing a group of 43 workers that chose to unionize during an Austin City Council meeting as it was being live streamed is all sorts of spicy. Google and Cognizant fucked up.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        How’s that work, is there lots of hair pulling? Or are you able to charge an arm and a leg and set your timelines because the clients don’t have much of a choice?

    • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      20·
      11 months ago

      Contractors at Google and other tech companies are typically treated and managed as real employees except for minor legal-motivated things like travel which is treated differently.

      Further, contracts are typically for a fixed period of time.

      That these employees/contractors seemed genuinely surprised by the abrupt termination suggests this was not the natural end of their contract. Google, not Cognizant, decides when their contracts end. If their contracts were terminated with no warning or reason given, it was initiated by Google. And with that background it seems pretty likely it was in retaliation to the union activity.

      “But they’re not Google employees”, right? But then, that’s why Google and other tech companies use contractors - to avoid giving those employees actual employee protections.

    • net00@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      If the team is finding out that their job ends on the same day, it’s totally Google’s doing, and not the vendor company.

      Google loves cheap, disposable workers, that why half of their workers are contractors.

    • Pixelemme@lemm.eeEnglish
      58·
      11 months ago

      Yeah I don’t understand why Google is being blamed here. If the contact ended with Cognizant then it is upto Cognizant to find other projects for the people who were part of the contract. That’s how it works with these companies. If CTS couldn’t find work in other projects then it’s on CTS and not on Google

    • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
      48·
      11 months ago

      Damn it, what am I supposed to do with this pitchfork now?

      But seriously, shitty misleading headline.

      • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18·
        11 months ago

        If you watch the video, one of the union members is at the Council meeting speaking to the City Council and another union member walks up to him to inform him that they were laid off with immediate effect. The workers both seemed genuinely surprised that they were laid off.