Search engine giant Google is not having the best start to the new year after a recent Ruling from the National Labor Relations Board called the company out for illegal behavior.
The ruling further shed light on how the tech giant refused to carry out negotiations with a group of contractors of YouTube Music based in Austin. Moreover, the panel featuring three members says that the company owns YouTube Music and Cognizant, the latter being a subcontractor.
The duo in question is a combination of joint employers for the contractors’ group that are responsible for carrying out data-based tasks such as highlighting errors across its algorithm.
Despite having such a significant role, more should have been done on this front, the ruling added. Moreover, the material highlighted some real terms and conditions for the employment of the workers present at the facility who are working as joint employers, the board added.
The problems that Google is facing with contractors linked to YouTube Music are not something new. We saw the matter arising after 40 workers were hired by the organization Cognizant. They voted to enter the Alphabet Workers Union.
The major issue on this front had to do with the app’s demand for workers working remotely to get back into their respective Austin offices. But the workers argued as they were paid just $19 each hour, most of them being hired remotely.
They were seen arguing about how little expenses for childcare and transport were being covered so to go back into the workspace physically was just not something they were keen on.
This scenario appeared to be familiar as it reminded many of how the company behaved last year in November when a shocking ruling that was similar to this one was made against the search engine giant.
This was related to contractors from Bard and Search that voted to unite, classifying Google’s relationship with Accenture as a joint employer one. But during that time, the Alphabet-owned firm appealed the ruling by the NLRB ruling, and from the looks of it, they have plans to do the same in this particular case too.
The news was first reported by media outlet Bloomberg who mentioned how the firm would make the appeal in the federal court of law. It’s a repeat of behavior seen in the past.
The latest NLRB ruling that came into effect in December made it so much harder for firms such as Google to make arguments about how they’re not responsible for dealing with such kinds of unionization offers entailing third-party contractors.
This replaced a rule from the Trump era that had to do with joint employers so that unions would find it simpler to keep both franchises as well as contract employees more organized. That was at the expense of tech giants that were not a fan of the idea as they rely heavily on such unions to carry out many of their laborious tasks.
Read next: Alert For X Business Users As Hackers Target Verified Accounts To Promote Crypto And Phishing Scams
