Google Rolls Back Minimum Wage, Benefits For Staffing Firms To Help With Negotiations

A spokesperson said that the firm is planning to do away with the 2019 policy and take some other measures to keep in line with the evolving labour regulations

Google announced on Friday that it is going back on minimum wage requirements and other benefits. The tech giant said that it is taking down requirements for US suppliers and staffing firms to pay the employees a minimum wage of $15 an hour along with other benefits such as health insurance.

This move could help the company avoid negotiations with unions, reported Reuters. A spokesperson for the California-based company said that the firm is planning to do away with the 2019 policy and take some other measures to keep in line with the evolving labour regulations regarding contingent workers in the US and globally. 

Among the other measures, the company said that it is restricting access by temporary workers and vendors to the internal systems. 

The spokesperson noted, “These updates bring us in line with other large companies and simply clarify that Google is not, and has never been, the employer of our suppliers’ employees.”

Notably, the US National Labour Relations Board announced earlier in January that Google needs to bargain with the union as it was a ‘joint employer’ of workers provided by the staffing company Cognizant Technology Solutions. 

The board said that it allowed the tech firm to exercise control over the workers even when it doesn’t directly employ them. Google will submit an appeal against the decision.

The Labour Board is notably working to make bargaining with temporary and contract workers a non-negotiable option for firms. The board also adapted a rule last year that stated that firms which exercised indirect control about the working conditions could be seen as the employers for contract workers. However, the rule was blocked by a federal judge in March. 

The firm’s spokesperson said that the tech company will keep enforcing a supplier code of conduct, wherein, vendor and staffing firms will be needed to ensure safe working conditions and also fulfill the existing legal requirements. 

Currently, majority of the firm’s suppliers work in states that have made a minimum wage of $15 an hour as mandatory, the report said citing the spokesperson.