A man walks through the Google offices in New York City on January 25, 2023.
Leonardo Munoz | Photo Corbis News | Getty Images
Google A letter shared with former employees and CNBC shows that former employees who are laid off during maternity and medical leave will not be paid for the remainder of their leave.
More than 100 former workers have organized a group called “Layoffs”. They’re asking executives to pay for the weeks and months that their departures are approved before layoffs are announced in January. , said they were told they would only receive payment by the specified end date.
A group of former employees sent three separate letters to executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai and Chief Human Resources Officer Fiona Cicconi. Includes vacation and people who have been approved or are currently taking personal leave.
Earlier last year, Google announced that it would: Increased parental leave For full-time employees, 18 weeks for all parents and 24 weeks for birth parents. At the time, Cicconi offered “extra benefits” so that employees could “spend more time with their new baby, care for sick loved ones, and take care of their own health.” He said he wanted to offer
But Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has entered the toughest cost-cutting era in nearly two decades on the public market. In January, the company 12,000 jobs cutmakes up about 6% of the workforce, but has to factor in slowing sales growth as the tech sector continues to expand.
Pichai said U.S.-based employees will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, plus two weeks for each additional year at Google. The company also said the severance package would include paid vacation.
Those laid off while on medical leave have called on Pichai and other leaders to provide immediate clarity on the matter as deadlines are looming.
The vacation layoffs group sent its first email to executives in January, sharing specific examples of Google employees impacted by layoffs during previously approved vacations.
One woman said she was fired a week after her maternity leave was approved. Another woman said she was notified a week before she was due to give birth while on maternity leave.
Some have publicly discussed the issue.
“Exactly one week after receiving the text and sharing the exciting news that my maternity leave was approved, I received an already widely viral email informing me that I was one of the 12k who was laid off. ”said a program manager at Google. I have written at LinkedIn. “Easy to aim? Maybe.”
Another longtime employee, Kate Howells, said, Posted Giving birth just prior to being notified.
“On January 20th, 2023, at 7:05 am, while in a hospital bed holding my one-hour-old newborn, I learned that I was part of #thegolden12K, a Google employee who had been laid off.” Howells writes. “I have been with Google for 9.5 years.”
In an email to CNBC, a Google spokesperson told CNBC that departing employees are eligible to receive stock and salary for “a notice period of 60 days or more,” adding 16 weeks of salary plus an additional 2 for each year of service. I repeated Pichai’s notes about the week.
The company did not say whether it will cover full medical leave in addition to severance pay.
“When shared with affected employees, we benchmarked this package to ensure the care we were providing was superior compared to other companies, including Google employees on vacation. I did,” said a spokesperson.
“Honest effort”
Access to doctors and specialists through Google’s onsite One Medical facility was also cut off the day of the layoff notice, multiple people who were laid off from their jobs told CNBC. treatment was interrupted, they said. A laid off senior software engineer says he has been unable to see his family doctor in person for three years.
Some former employees said they were given the option to continue seeing doctors online, but were otherwise advised to find alternatives.
A group of dismissed workers highlighted the fact that this is being done during Women’s History Month.
“Google is currently showcasing workplace initiatives and participation in Women’s History Month through various product and service campaigns,” the group wrote in an email sent to Google executives. Recognizing the challenges that still disproportionately affect women in the workplace. ”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaking at a panel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Summit of the Americas on June 9, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
They said the company still has an opportunity to resolve the issue.
“For all leave approved as of January 20, 2023, we ask that you make a good faith effort to honor the terms of your original parental and/or disability leave arrangements,” the group wrote.
At an informal event held by Google alumni group Xoogler in January, more than 50 laid-off workers gathered for mutual solace and answers. One of her organizers, Kusha Grashrivastava, told her CNBC at the event, “I was laid off while I was taking care of my 3-month-old baby, and it was very painful.” I remember my mother saying,
New mothers and soon-to-be pregnant mothers aren’t the only ones in trouble. The email to management also mentioned the challenges faced by pregnant women who have not yet formally applied for leave, stating, as a result, “Given the point during pregnancy, the path to securing the new role is even longer.”
At new employers, these women had to wait a year for benefits from the Family and Medical Leave Act to begin and were told to “leverage FMLA paid by pregnant and new mothers to harm their health and It’s a baby’s well-being,” said the group. “Parental and medical leave put a huge strain on the ability of laid-off Googlers to quickly find new work.”
group letter pointed companies like Amazonthey said they would pay Retirement package plus remaining vacation time.
Employees who tried to contact Google about the issue said they had lost access to internal systems and could only fill out forms on another short-term portal. Some say he received a response a week after his inquiry, but all received what appeared to be an automated response, prompting him to repeat the end date of his employment or reapply for a different position. I was giving instructions to
A group of laid-off workers said in an email to CNBC that Pichai is more concerned with keeping abreast of the company’s battle for artificial intelligence supremacy than caring for longtime employees in need of help. He said he was showing greater concern for the effort.
“When Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the layoffs, he mentioned the company’s AI efforts three times, but not once about Google’s accessibility efforts. This is very important as it is part of the actual mission of the company, which clearly requires a realignment of priorities. has shown that it is not really leading the way in AI, but the good news is that there remains a great opportunity to become an accessibility leader in dealing with laid-off workers. ”
quality time with baby
The group also reminded Google management of the importance of parental interests and the company’s intentions when updating the plan. In particular, parents should spend quality time with their newborns without the stress of having to rush back to work thinking about work.
“With this in mind, Google has created parent benefits that highlight the need for parents to take time off to recuperate and bond with their new baby,” said an executive. an email to said.
Some said the issue was just an oversight and they hoped executives would take corrective action as the company promised them a certain amount of full paid leave.
“Paying the full amount of remaining vacation days for scheduled and upcoming vacations is specifically consistent with Google’s current policy regarding payments for employees’ accumulated time off (PTO) on this layoff. will be,” the letter said.
The group referred to Google’s original core value of “Don’t be evil” when calling on leadership to take immediate action.
A laid off employee wrote to CNBC: “
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