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YouTube Music team laid off by Google while workers testified to Austin City Council about working conditions
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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At least in the UK, if you work like an employee enough, the court can overrule the technicality of your employment status as a contractor and apply labor law protections.
This is exactly what happened with these union members. The National Labor Review Board ruled that Google was a co-employer along with Cognizant, and they ruled that Google just come to the bargaining table with these union members. They refused. They emailed city council members asking for a postponement of their vote to give them time to sort stuff out, and it was granted. The very next day, the fired the entire union out of retaliation for speaking to the city council voicing their concerns.
You have any idea the wide spread feelings on this?
It sounds like that's what we should be doing in more countries,.US.
Oh the US has tried to fix this issue multiple times. The end result was many of us getting laid off after 18 months every time because they couldn't extend our contacts any further by law. There's no reason for a company to convert a contractor if they're not required to.
that's because they keep going at it from a timeline POV; I believe if they made required work time slots as a limitation against contract work (i.e if you are required to work between x-y daily) this issue would be resolved. There's no real reason for many contract positions to be a static time slot, contractors are supposed to be fully flexible on their own time as long as the end product is correct and within SLA, thd only benefit to fixed scheduling is management level, so I think that would tip the scale onto employee instead of contractor
That's really only true for independent contractors, not W2 contract work to be fair. And every 1099 contract I've worked I've always clarified that stipulation in writing. In the interest of working together I do agree to be on daily or semi daily standups to allow progress.
Yeah, it's frustrating when people in turn can't find good medical insurance.
The trade for sometimes higher pay or flexibility in assignments doesn't work when you can't afford insurance or other benefits.
Assuming you were even being paid about permanent positions.
Yeah it's really frustrating. I'm fortunately at a level where the contracting companies have to provide at least decent benefits to get employees. But contracting sucks. Often you're restricted in what you can do, causing unnecessary delays to getting software done at the rate the company wants.
I've been yelled at by upper management for not doing something I legally wasn't allowed to. No apology when an employee on the call pointed it out of course.
It's a shit show. But my market is fucked right now so I'm about to go get a job at a grocery store or something and figure it out I guess.
Good luck to you.
Those work situations are the worst. It reminds me of the saying "you can be right, or you can get what you want, but not both".
You can correctly assert your contractor status and correctly point out that you're not legally allowed to do a thing. You're in the right, no doubt, but that doesn't stop an unhappy executive from "letting you go" anyway.
On the books, that is the case in the US too but it is almost never enforced