Alphabet’s Google to face lawsuit from NLRB for violating labor laws

In a recent turn of events, U.S. government body National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has reportedly issued a complaint against American multinational technology company, Google LLC for unlawfully monitoring as well as questioning its workers and subsequently terminating them for forming a union.

For the uninitiated, the NLRB is an independent federal government agency of the United States that is responsible for the enforcement of labor law in order to mitigate unfair labor practices and collective bargaining in the country.

The accusation comes along the heels after the labor regulator observed that Google unlawfully placed its employees on administrative leave and terminated them for accessing documents to know how the organization policies its internal forums.

If reports are to be believed, the NLRB also discovered unlawful policies germane to meetings as well as document access along with strategies for investigating its employees. In this context, Google claims to have acted legally while terminating staff who had breached information security regulations.

Notably, at least 5 employees, who were in collaboration with the Communications Workers of America union, were terminated after leading efforts to gather colleagues and petition the NLRB’s challenge against Google. Sources further claimed that the federal agency had dismissed few of the union’s allegations.

Laurence Berland, one of the employees who was terminated, was reported saying that the complaint issued against Google marks a significant milestone in times when powerful technology billionaires possess the capability of consolidating control over the life of the common man.

The NLRB expects a formal response from Goggle before December 16, 2020, sources confirmed. The court hearing regarding the changes in the company policies and reinstatement of the terminated employees is scheduled to be held in the presence of an administrative law judge on April 12, 2021.

In other news, Google LLC is reportedly planning on buying Massachusetts-headquartered cloud-focused data protection technology company in order to enhance the data security of its cloud-based as well as on premises enterprise workload. 

Source credits: https://in.reuters.com/article/alphabet-google-labor/google-violated-u-s-labour-laws-in-clampdown-on-worker-organising-regulator-says-idINKBN28D0C3