Caregivers at Google Children’s Centers require transportation assistance Labor Rights News

Early childhood educators and caregivers working at Google Children’s Centers say that due to the relatively low salary, it is impossible to live near Google’s campuses, and the company’s refusal to help with transportation costs reflects the minimum value of their work.

Google staff who provide care and education for the children of the staff have said that the Internet giant is calling the office without restoring the trusted shuttle service, and they are expanding a request to Alphabet Inc. asking the unit to pay for transportation. cover travel costs.

“Changing the approved cost for key employees will earn them much less than the children who care for them,” the request was unacceptable, members of the Alphabet Workers Union wrote and began rolling out on Friday. “Google may be solving extra problems, but it’s choosing not to fix the problem for its child care staff.”

The petition, which in its first hours collected the signatures of about 200 Alphabet employees, says staff at Google Children’s Centers have tried in vain to put the issue in place with managers: “Company Response” Transportation is just an advantage, not a benefit. “

A Google representative said Friday that the shuttle service will be available “as soon as it’s safe,” but he wouldn’t give it time.

The company added that when the Google center closed, daycare workers were paid in full during the pandemic, and like other Google employees, they received an extra $ 1,000 pay from home.

“We work hard to provide a positive, rewarding and rewarding experience for all employees, including Google Educators at our Children’s Centers,” Shannon Newberry, a spokeswoman for Google, said in a separate statement. “Feedback is welcome and we will continue to work with any staff who are concerned.”

Child educators and caregivers work at Google’s four children’s centers near the company’s San Francisco Bay offices, and the staff’s children are in their care for children ages 5 and up.

During the pandemic, they were offered virtual activities such as yoga for children and reading books. In interviews, employees said the salary is relatively low, that it is impossible to live near Google’s campuses, and that refusing to help with transportation reflects the minimum value of their work.

“We support Google babies, infants and the like, and yet our job doesn’t look that way,” said Denise Belardes, a local AWU chief who earns about $ 25 an hour as a child educator at Google.

Employees have said they have been raising the issue of transportation with managers for weeks, and have told them to manage it themselves through solutions like car sharing. “We feel so invisible,” said AWU member Katrina de la Fuente. “We’re like stepchildren.”

Staff at the Google Children’s Center have reported that some staff will have to return to the office as soon as Monday to prepare the children for classrooms a month later.

Although many tech companies have gone to great lengths to make remote work more sustainable, Google is inviting employees to offices this year, arguing that personal work drives innovation. The company has redesigned campuses to provide more space for people and create hybrid collaborative work functions, with a mix of office and home staff.

Earlier this week, Google changed its rules to allow more people to work from home or from different offices. Following this drop, the company said 60% of employees will be able to work there a few days a week, and 20% will be able to work remotely.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also told employees that in 2021 the company would continue to give it “reset” days – additional paid leave made by Google in the pandemic.

The Alphabet Workers Union, an American subsidiary of Communications Workers, was formally formed in January. The group has said it does not seek formal recognition or collective bargaining with the company, but intends to address workplace issues through defense and protest.

The complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Commission in February on behalf of an employee of a subcontracted Google data center in South Carolina resulted in an agreement, and Google promised to comply with federal law by silencing employees about pay.