Senators demand Google reclassify temp workers as full-time employees

In a letter addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday, 10 US Senators urged the search giant's leadership to reclassify temporary or contract workers as full-time employees.

According to a New York Times report, Google's contract workforce outnumbers its full-time employees, with 121,000 contractors and 102,000 full-time employees.

Contractors do much of the same work as full-timers, but are typically paid less and receive significantly worse benefits. They are systematically cordoned off from some of Google's most touted employee benefits such as free meals or free transportation on Google's bus fleet, as Business Insider previously reported.

In response, Google VP of People Operations Eileen Naughton said Google's employment practices are in line with “the highest industry standards.” Naughton also claimed that contractors account for 0.5% of Google's total workforce, while temporary workers make up 3% of its team.

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A group of US Senators, including Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, is publicly calling for Google to convert its vast ranks of temporary and contract workers into full time employees, describing the company's current practice as an “abuse” of worker classifications.

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, a group of 10 Senators listed a variety of objections to Google's use of temporary and contract workers, pointing specifically to a New York Times report which claims that contract and temp workers at Google outnumber the full-time employees.

“The differences between the categories of workers appears to be in name only,” reads the letter, which was dated July 24 and first reported about by the New York Times.

Google has 121,000 contractors and 102,000 full-time employees, according to the Times.

Read More: Google will temporarily stop contractors from listening to Assistant recordings around the world after leaked data sparked privacy concerns

Google's massive temporary workforce does much of the same work as full-timers, but are typically paid less and receive significantly worse benefits. As Business Insider has reported, they are systematically cordoned off from some of Google's most touted employee benefits such as free meals or free transportation on Google's bus fleet, and even have easily identifiable badges that add to a “sense of shame.”

The letter by the Senators lists several demands, including that Google convert all temporary workers to full time employees after six months, and wage and benefit parity for independent contractors, temporary workers and full time employees.

In response to the Senators' demands, Google's VP of People Operations Eileen Naughton pushed back by saying Google's employment practices are in line with “the highest industry standards.” Naughton also claimed that contractors account for 0.5% of Google's total workforce, while temporary workers make up 3% of its team.

“Being a temporary worker is not intended to be a path to employment at Google, and because we want to be clear and upfront, this is a part of our written policies and the training that all Google employees managing temporary staff must take,” Naughton wrote.

According to Naughton, Google recently implemented a minimum standard for its partner employment agencies. All workers employed through a Google-contracted vendor are required to pay $15 per hour by January 1, 2022, with 12 weeks of paid family leave.

The letter was signed by 10 Democratic Senators, including Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. It asks Google CEO Pichai to respond by August 9.