Google Contractors Allege Company Prevents Them From Whistleblowing, Writing Silicon Valley Novels (cnbc.com) 35
Google contract employees are alleging the company's confidentiality agreements prevent them from a range of legal rights from whistleblowing to telling their parents how much they make, according to a recent court filing. From a report: A California appeals court recently discussed a lawsuit accusing Google and one of its staffing firms, Adecco, of violating a number of California labor laws, including free speech, by requiring workers to sign extensive confidentiality agreements. The contractors state they can't talk about their wages, working conditions or colleagues, among other things, according to the court filing. "As a practical matter, plaintiffs argue, they are forbidden even to write a novel about working in Silicon Valley or to reassure their parents they are making enough money to pay their bills, matters untethered to any legitimate need for confidentiality," the filing states.
Been happening for a long time (Score:3)
Google might be the world's most secretive company that doesn't primarily deal with military intelligence or "defense," Apple would be a close 2nd, and few others would come anywhere close. IIRC there was a lawsuit a few years back from employees who thought the level of secrecy there was bad for their mental health?
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The reason for the secrecy, they know, they are steaming pile of shit, real psychopath executives. Invade you privacy to control you, seriously, using doctors of psychology, real sickos. Hence the paranoid secrecy, if every knew what kind of psycho shit head the executives are, they would drop all Google services.
For your own safety people, seriously, https://duckduckgo.com/ [duckduckgo.com] and stop using GMail and block it. As evil as it gets at it's core. That is what they are desperate to keep secret because they know
Forced Labor? (Score:2, Insightful)
I think not. Seems to me that these contractors were provided with the contract and read it prior to accepting its terms and going to work. It's pretty tough to sue a company after you have agreed to work under their terms, whatever they may be.
Re:Forced Labor? (Score:5, Insightful)
An illegal clause in a contract cannot be enforced. (I'm not saying the Google NDA necessarily contains illegal clauses... that's what this lawsuit has to figure out.)
Re:Forced Labor? (Score:5, Interesting)
They claim that the contract prohibits them from whistleblowing.
I am skeptical about that, but if true, it is unenforceable.
A legal contract can't protect or coverup illegal activity.
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you have agreed to work under their terms
So? What if some were put on to you later on, what if some oft hem were not clear? What if you were agreeing to terms that were actually illegal (like discussing wages - telling others your salary etc is protected under federal law, and has been since 1934)?
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telling others your salary etc is protected under federal law
Irrelevant. Contractors are not employees and are not paid either wages or salaries.
Contractors are paid according to the terms of their contract. Federal law does not prohibit confidential contract terms.
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telling others your salary etc is protected under federal law
Irrelevant. Contractors are not employees and are not paid either wages or salaries.
Citation needed? I see nothing in the law saying that it doesn't apply to contractors. It might be there, I just am not seeing it - versus exceptions for those in manager positions.
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Perhaps it is time to clean your reading glasses.
The NLRA specifically says "employee" dozens of times.
Furthermore, in Section 2, paragraph 3, it specifically says it does not apply to contractors.
National Labor Relations Act [nlrb.gov]
anti union to stop talk about pay / work hours (Score:2)
anti union to stop talk about pay / work hours.
They should be able to bully people like.
Hay JAY there lot's people who will work 80 hours for 80K so take your 81K an suck it up.
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It's comparatively easy when those terms are illegal to put into a contract, or even enforce as a policy, since they contravene Federal labor law [govdocs.com].
Really [govdocs.com], it doesn't matter whether it's posted publicly or not. They can't prohibit it. Period.
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The laws you cite apply to employees, not contractors.
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Sure they're contractors... let's apply the ABC test and see how that falls out.
Re:Forced Labor? (Score:4, Informative)
Some working conditions can not be signed away. A former employer of mine insisted the Fair Labor Standards Act did not apply to me because of the contract. He was very wrong.
Some states have specific protections for workers sharing salary information. If so in whatever state this is filed in, Google will lose.
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Some states have specific protections for workers sharing salary information.
They are not employees, they are contractors. They are not receiving salaries.
Source code? (Score:2)
FAANG (Score:2)
It's a complete mystery to me as to why anyone would voluntarily choose to work for a FAANG company.
Re:FAANG (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a complete mystery to me as to why anyone would voluntarily choose to work for a FAANG company.
The pay is generous and a FAANG looks good on your resume.
At this point in my career, I would not work for a FAANG, but for a young coder just starting out, it can be a good chance to pay down your student loans and build out your professional network.
The free lunches are also very good.
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Yeah, I can see that for a young person starting out.
As for the resume comment, though... I used to own a software company and hire developers. For me, the fact that someone worked at a FAANG company would be neither a pro nor a con compared to having worked at any other software company.
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I have worked with ex-Googlers. They are used to following coding conventions and having their code reviewed. They write code assuming other people will be reading it.
Programmers who have only worked for small startups are more likely to be cowboy coders.
Google has a rigorous interview process. So their ex's at least survived that gauntlet.
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Netflix series announced (Score:3)
"12 years a slave". A documentary about contract work at Google.
Novels I get (Score:2)
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Hahahahaha.
Yea right. Whistleblowers are frequently targeted, attacked and sued, even by the government. The reality is very far from protected, especially in the current administration where a whistleblower and his brother both lost their jobs and careers because of a complaint protected by law, but they aren't in Jail, yet.
"But, Mom, I can't pay rent for the basement!" (Score:2)
Google forbids me from telling you how much I make . . . but it is not enough to pay rent for your basement.
In fact, actually, I pay Google to work there. I'm losing money, but building up market share. Can you lend me some money until next month . . . ?
Oh, and can you do another load of laundry for me today . . . ? And also, there is no more beer in the refrigerator . . . somebody must have drank it all . . .
Those won't hold up in court (Score:1)
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makes it illegal for a company to retaliate for an employee sharing that info.
They are contractors, not employees.
My mind still boggles... (Score:2)
... about how Google progressed from "Don't Be Evil" to "Bwa-ha-ha-ha".
I can't think of anything about the company I can respect any more. (Yeah, I know... as if people having that opinion would bother their management in the least nowadays.)
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> ... about how Google progressed from "Don't Be Evil"
Remember, that slogan was adopted was before Google was serious business.
Why write a book? Just start writing. (Score:2)
Screw the nondisclosure. Create a protected email account. We all know a few, perhaps in Switzerland.
Find an anonymous service that lets you publish anonymized links or at least bound to your secure email.
Create Twitter account and start publishing.
Go.
Pay (Score:2)
Does it apply to the IRS? (Score:2)
Sorry, I would be glad to pay my taxes but Google doesn't let me declare my income. Confidentiality agreements are important you know.