Google Subcontractors Face Low Pay, Inadequate Benefits, Union Survey Finds
Alphabet Workers Union heard from about 2,000 employees who work at a variety of tasks for the search giant’s subcontractors
Workers at Google’s subcontractors say they receive inadequate pay and benefits, lack job security and have little say in working conditions, according to survey responses from almost 2,000 employees conducted by the Alphabet Workers Union.
The AWU released the findings Wednesday from what it called the largest survey of US-based employees at 248 subcontractors of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, including Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Accenture Plc and Appen Ltd. The workers surveyed have a wide range of jobs. They include raters — people who assess the quality of Google products like search results and ads — as well as those who are part of YouTube’s content operations team, writers for Google’s help center, and even employees training algorithms for Google’s buzzy new AI chatbot, Bard. AWU said it sent surveys to about 26,000 workers and spent about six months collecting the responses, which were analyzed by two digital labor researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.