Google workers writes open letter to Sundar Pichai on job cuts. What they ask?

Almost 1,400 workers at Google guardian Alphabet Inc. have signed a petition calling for higher remedy of workers through the layoff course of, after the corporate introduced it was chopping 12,000 jobs.

In an open letter addressed to Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, workers made a collection of calls for of the corporate, together with freezing new hires, searching for voluntary redundancies earlier than obligatory ones, giving precedence to laid off employees for job vacancies and letting employees end scheduled intervals of paid break day, resembling parental and bereavement go away.

The employees additionally known as on Alphabet to keep away from terminating workers from international locations with energetic conflicts or humanitarian crises, resembling Ukraine, and supply additional assist to these vulnerable to dropping their visa-linked residency together with their jobs.

“The impacts of Alphabet’s resolution to scale back its workforce are world,” the letter said. “Nowhere have workers’ voices adequately been considered, and we know that as workers we are stronger together than alone.”

The petition follows Alphabet’s announcement in January that it could reduce about 6% of its workforce following investor stress to scale back spending within the post-pandemic droop. Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among the many different tech giants to slash headcount in current months after years of progress and hiring.

A spokesperson for Alphabet didn’t instantly touch upon the petition. When Pichai introduced the job cuts on Jan. 20, he mentioned in an e-mail to workers that the corporate employed for a “totally different financial actuality than the one we face as we speak” and that he took “full responsibility.”

Although some Google employees, significantly within the US, misplaced their jobs instantly, the method has been a lot slower for these in international locations with stronger labor protections which can be widespread in Europe. Googlers in Switzerland, for instance, solely discovered which employees have been reduce this week, triggering a walkout on Wednesday.

The letter was organized by a gaggle of workers supported by unions together with the Alphabet Workers Union, United Tech and Allied Workers and UNI Global. It was born out of discussions through a Discord channel arrange after the roles cuts have been introduced.

Labor teams have helped set up a number of petitions relating to the layoffs at varied Google items and in several international locations the place it’s current.

Some of the individuals who signed the petition advised Bloomberg they’re involved that the session processes required by legislation in some international locations have change into a box-ticking train. Feedback from workers to administration, together with outcomes of surveys the place individuals expressed curiosity in volunteering for redundancy or lowered hours, has not been taken into consideration, they mentioned.

The employees plan to flow into the petition for a couple of extra days earlier than presenting a bodily copy to Pichai on the Google’s headquarters in California.

This story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Only the headline has been modified.

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