Google Employees Sign Petition, Calling CEO Pichai for Better Treatment During Layoffs

As Google announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs, almost 1,400 employees signed a petition at Alphabet calling the company for better treatment of workers during the layoff process. The petition was addressed to the CEO and contained several employee demands.

Signing Petition

Employees at Alphabet's Google demanded Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai better treatment during the layoff process. Based on a report from Gizmodo, this comes after the company announced the workforce reduction, affecting 12,000 employees.

The letter indicates, "Nowhere have workers' voices adequately been considered, and we know that as workers we are stronger together than alone. Our company has long touted its commitment to doing right by its users and workers, and these commitments will show Alphabet adhering to the final line of its Code of Conduct: Don't Be Evil."

Employees requested the company to freeze new hires during the layoff process and prioritize the hiring process of laid-off employees. Google must also protect workers from countries experiencing humanitarian issues like Ukraine and Russia, not fire people on scheduled leaves, and prevent discrimination.

The petition letter was organized by a group of employees supported by several unions, including the Alphabet Workers Union, United Tech and Allied Workers, and UNI Global. After the job cuts were announced, employees started to discuss the petition through a Discord channel.

According to some of the employees who signed the petition, they are most concerned that the consultation processes have become a box-ticking exercise, which is mandatory as it is required by law in some countries. Despite this, the feedback from staff to management has yet to be considered.

The petition is planned to circulate for a few more days before the workers and labor groups present a physical copy to be directly sent to CEO Pichai at the company's headquarters in California.

Cutting 12,000 Jobs

Last January, Bloomberg reported that Google announced it would cut about 6% of its workforce as several investors pressured the company to reduce spending after splurging during the pandemic. This has affected more than 12,000 workers in the country since the start of the year.

Pichai stated via an internal email to the staff that the company hired several employees in a different economic reality than the one they are experiencing today. He also said that he took full responsibility for this.

Some workers lost their jobs immediately, but the process has been much slower for some countries with stronger labor protections, which are common mostly in Europe. Reuters reported that hundreds of employees walked out last Wednesday in the Zurich office in Switzerland after announcing that 200 employees were laid off.