Alphabet Inc.’s Google is legally the boss of YouTube contract staff and must collectively bargain with the workers if they vote to unionize, a US labor board official ruled.
In a Friday decision, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board rejected the internet giant’s claims that it wasn’t the employer of a group of Texas-based YouTube workers, who are hired via the staffing agency Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. The director ruled that Google is in fact a “joint employer” — a company that has enough control over a group of workers to be liable for their treatment and obligated to negotiate with them if they unionize.
