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Google denies paying remainder of maternity leave, allege laid-off employees
Google just announced the termination of 12,000 positions. Some of the affected employees were already on approved maternity and medical breaks. They are now blaming the parent Alphabet inc. of not paying payment for the leaves.
After laying off around 6% of its total workforce in January this year, Google is reportedly planning to take more cost-cutting measures, like not paying its former employees for paid maternity and medical leave.
According to a report from CNBC, ex-staffers who were laid off while on their medical or maternity leave have alleged that Google is refusing to pay them for their approved time off. More than 100 such former employees have joined to form the group "Laid off on Leave" to press the tech behemoth to pay them for the weeks and months they were approved to take off before the job cuts were announced.
ALSO READ: Google lays off worker during parental leave: ‘Fired while feeding baby at 2 am’
The laid-off employees said that they will only receive pay until their specified end date, along with standard severance, the report added.
The group consists of people who were approved for or are currently on maternity leave, baby bonding leave, caregiver’s leave, medical leave, and personal leave.
Google in January announced mass layoffs affecting 12,000 employees, or about 6% of its workforce, blaming slowing sales growth after an extended period of expansion in the tech sector.
Following the announcement that the company would be laying off 12,000 employees, nearly 1,400 employees of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, signed a petition demanding better treatment of employees during the layoff process. (ALSO READ: ‘We are stronger together…’: Google employees write letter to CEO Pichai)
In an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai, employees made a number of demands, including freezing new hires, prioritizing voluntary redundancies over forced ones, giving laid-off workers priority for open positions, and allowing workers to complete scheduled paid leave periods, such as parental and bereavement leave.
