A group of Google contract workers who helped train the company’s Bard AI chatbot and write Google Help articles voted overwhelmingly Monday to form a union. The employees, who were contracted through Accenture to work for Google, have formed a union to ensure better working conditions and protections.
The contractors will join the Alphabet Workers Union, the labor organization that represents employees at Google and parent company Alphabet. They first began unionizing in June after being assigned to work on the then-unannounced Bard chatbot. As part of their efforts to help train the bot, they were asked “to deal with obscene, explicit and offensive prompts,” according to a report from Bloomberg.
When one of the contractors complained to Accenture’s human resources department about the content, Bloomberg reports that their work was outsourced to Accenture employees in Manila. Just weeks after the contract players announced their union campaign, dozens of contractors were laid off, leaving only about 40 of the 120 workers in their jobs.
“We organized ourselves so we could have a say in our working conditions,” Jen Hill, designer of Google Help and member of the Alphabet Workers Union, said in a statement. “In response, Google has attempted to avoid its responsibility to us as an employer, while also firing dozens of our team members.”
The contractors classify Google as a “joint employer” alongside Accenture
The contractors classify Google as a “joint employer” alongside Accenture, meaning both companies work closely with the employees and can be held responsible for their treatment. However, Google claims that it is not a direct employer.
“We have no objection to these Accenture employees choosing to form a union. We have long had many contracts with unionized suppliers,” said Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini The edge. “But as we have made clear in our active appeal to the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board]we are not a joint employer because we simply have no control over their terms of employment or working conditions – this matter is between the employees and their employer, Accenture”
In its appeal to the NLRB, Google says Accenture “only” determines employees’ work schedules, job classifications, leave requests and salaries. Accenture spokesperson Deirdre Blackwood said the company “recognizes the right of our people to form or join labor unions” and that it “will continue to participate in the NLRB process.”
Google has faced criticism for years over its treatment of contract workers, and more and more of them across all levels of Google are beginning to unionize. A group of contractors working on YouTube Music voted in April to form a union, saying the NLRB ruling would classify Alphabet as a joint employer, a decision that would force Google to take a seat at the bargaining table. However, the NLRB says Google refuses to negotiate with employees as part of the contract negotiation process. With Google already pushing back on its claim that it is a joint employer for Accenture employees, we’re likely to face another legal battle.