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Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

theguardian.com

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Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#51

Post by alisonkisk »

RIMR wrote: post #31
threatofrain wrote: post #3

> Google executives have been aware since at least May 2019 that the company was failing to comply with local laws in the UK, Europe and Asia that mandate temporary workers be paid equal rates to full-time employees performing similar work, internal Google documents and emails reviewed by the Guardian show. > But rather than immediately correct the errors, the company dragged its feet for more than two years, the doc…

Honestly, underpaying employees should be viewed no differently than any other for of theft, and executives willfully allowing it to happen ought to be facing time behind bars for it.

Wage theft is the largest form of theft

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#52

Post by pembrook »

My question is, if it's so advantageous to employ people via onsite staffing firms (basically half of FAANG's workforce is employed this way), why doesn't Google stop directly employing people altogether?

Without fail, if it's a giant publicly-traded company, a huge percentage of the workforce will always be onsite vendors. It seems so bizarrely arbitrary where they decide to hire direct vs. contract.

And I'm not talking about janitors, I'm talking highly paid software engineers, product managers, etc working on the same teams with Google employees.

Based on the rates I've seen, I can't imagine it's cheaper than having direct employees. So I'm guessing its more about making it easier to fire people, harder to get sued by them, and offloading the hassle of benefits onto a third party. It's clearly legal in the US, so why not take that strategy with all employees.

Does anybody have insight as to when this trend started in corporate America and why it's only popular with big publicly traded companies?

When a company goes public, do they suddenly get a mandate from the Board that they have to start mass-hiring people through Adecco?

Based on stories of mailroom workers rising up to executive ranks in the past, this clearly wasn't true as recently as the 1970s.

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#53

Post by alisonkisk »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #42
literallyaduck wrote: post #26

Time for a class action against Google. The whole industry could have depressed wages from their actions.

Today in "class action over the whole industry having depresed wages from their actions" history, this month marks the 21st anniversary of the DoJ filing a complaint against Google, Apple, Intel, and Adobe for agreeing not to poach each other's employees. The companies eventually settled a civil class action suit for $415 million.

11th anniversary Sept 24.

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#54

Post by paxys »

Ansil849 wrote: post #6
willcipriano wrote: post #5

Sounds like they were caught red handed, mens rea and all. Any chance this ends up with serious repercussions like prison time?

> any chance this ends up with serious repercussions like prison time When has any staff member of a FAANG company faced prison time for a similar crime? Not a rhetorical question, I'm genuinely curious though my instinct is to say 'never'.

The only time this happens is when the employee was harming the company in any way (insider trading, selling IP etc). It's pretty obvious who the law favors in these situations.

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#55

Post by fnord77 »

ah, surely just incompetence or a bureaucratic black hole and not malice.

> But rather than immediately correct the errors, the company dragged its feet for more than two years, the documents show, citing concern about the increased cost to departments that rely heavily on temporary workers,

whelp

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#56

Post by worik »

beepbooptheory wrote: post #49
ashtonkem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I keep saying: there’s nothing more dangerous than a company (or department in this case) that was once wildly profitable and is now merely profitable. It’s absurd that even at places like Google, which has effectively infinite money, there’s still this present attitude of not being able to afford paying workers. Nuts.

Its not really "dangerous" only because that wording implies another state of possible affairs that could be safer. unfortunately, ceteris paribus, the tendency of a rate of profit to ultimately slow is one of the costs of a free market, there is not really a way out of it long term!

Where is this thing called "Free Market"?

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#57

Post by ffggvv »

pembrook wrote: post #52

My question is, if it's so advantageous to employ people via onsite staffing firms (basically half of FAANG's workforce is employed this way), why doesn't Google stop directly employing people altogether? Without fail, if it's a giant publicly-traded company, a huge percentage of the workforce will always be onsite vendors. It seems so bizarrely arbitrary where they decide to hire direct vs. contract. And I'm not tal…

the engineers etc i’ve worked with that were contractors were far worse and way below normal google hiring bar. sorry if that’s not PC but it’s the truth. if they could get hired at actual google they would’ve done it.

hell, if they could get hired as a SWE at a comparable firm they would do that instead of taking a massive pay cut to be a contractor

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#58

Post by bjohnson225 »

walshemj wrote: post #7

Rather odd as in the UK id expect to get paid a lot more as a contractor for the same roll as a FTE. A bit of "schadenfreude " that clerical jobs in HR are some of the one in the UK Update Having said that I was underpaid as full timer when I worked for a BT subsidiary back in the day and the HR director was a "piece of work"

> Rather odd as in the UK id expect to get paid a lot more as a contractor for the same roll as a FTE

As a software dev/management contractor, sure, but as a “self-employed Yodel delivery driver” or similar low skill role? (Which it seems to be in this case)

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#59

Post by ren_engineer »

threatofrain wrote: post #3

> Google executives have been aware since at least May 2019 that the company was failing to comply with local laws in the UK, Europe and Asia that mandate temporary workers be paid equal rates to full-time employees performing similar work, internal Google documents and emails reviewed by the Guardian show. > But rather than immediately correct the errors, the company dragged its feet for more than two years, the doc…

nothing will change until high level executives start getting thrown in jail

Re: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers

#60

Post by luckylion »

ffggvv wrote: post #57
pembrook wrote: post #52

My question is, if it's so advantageous to employ people via onsite staffing firms (basically half of FAANG's workforce is employed this way), why doesn't Google stop directly employing people altogether? Without fail, if it's a giant publicly-traded company, a huge percentage of the workforce will always be onsite vendors. It seems so bizarrely arbitrary where they decide to hire direct vs. contract. And I'm not tal…

the engineers etc i’ve worked with that were contractors were far worse and way below normal google hiring bar. sorry if that’s not PC but it’s the truth. if they could get hired at actual google they would’ve done it. hell, if they could get hired as a SWE at a comparable firm they would do that instead of taking a massive pay cut to be a contractor

That begs the question: why is Google using subpar developers? It's hard to imagine there just not being any better ones, and it probably isn't a money issue. Are they so against having good old employees?
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