Author | Yuying The epidemic spread abroad, and Google, Apple, and Facebook have suggested that employees work from home. Unexpectedly, outsourcing engineers can't sit still...
Outsourcing engineers complain: salary and job are not guaranteed
Due to the spread of the epidemic abroad, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have successively recommended that employees work from home. However, the outsourcing engineers of these companies expressed concern about their situation.
In the early morning of last Friday, Google’s outsourcing engineer Amardeep Singh Purewal went to work in the office as usual, but found that the park was empty. The night before, Google notified all employees of the company by e-mail to switch to work from home. However, because the outsourcing engineer was not available The right to remotely access Google’s email account, so Amardeep Singh Purewal did not see this notification in time. He said that even if he saw it, he was not sure whether outsourcing was within the scope of this telecommuting.
Similarly, a Facebook outsourcing engineer received a notice from Facebook asking employees to work from home the day before, but went to the office on time the next day, because she was not sure whether she enjoyed the same home work or vacation rights. In the park, she found out that temporary workers were also within the scope of the emergency, which made her very annoyed and suspected that the outsourcing employer had failed to inform Facebook's policy in place.
Although in theory, these outsourced employees can indeed complete their work at home, due to various mandatory differential treatment policies, legal restrictions, or security considerations, their situation is often not as simple as regular employees. For example, they cannot take home computers for office use, cannot access shared databases, or perform remote login operations.
At Google, this type of employee is called TVC. A large number of internal Google documents remove the access rights of informal employees to these files. Many internal online social organizations also block outsourcing. This is called "TVC Lockdown" by employees. . Therefore, many outsourced employees cannot work normally at home.
Later, Google and Facebook both stated that this contingency plan also applies to outsourced engineers.
Google spokesperson Katherine Williams said that in the face of this crisis, we took the lead in deciding to provide compensation to outsourced employees who need to extend their working hours. We know that the current epidemic has not been controlled, but employees and partners have responded positively to Google's response policies. According to Reuters, Google is establishing a COVID-19 fund. All temporary employees and suppliers can take paid sick leave if they show symptoms of the virus or are unable to work due to quarantine.
Facebook also stated that they will continue to pay regular wages for outsourced personnel during the epidemic in terms of workload reduction, office building closures, and illnesses. Facebook spokesperson Drew Pusateri said that this policy will apply to all outsourced staff of the company.
However, whether these policies can be implemented depends on the actual performance of the organization responsible for managing outsourcing personnel.
For Purewal, which has only three days of sick leave a year (note: the United States is the only wealthy country that does not provide full paid sick leave, and currently only about a quarter of employees in the United States can enjoy this policy), Google’s commitment undoubtedly represents With hope. But Purewal said that the agent who hired him, Beacon Hill Staffing Group, is still unsure whether Google’s new policy allows Purewal to work from home or continue to receive normal wages when he is unable to work.
In Purewal's view, this is obviously a deliberate delay. When dealing with work issues, Google’s supervisor usually communicates with him in person or through Google Hangouts. But this time Google did not organize a notification meeting, nor did it clearly announce the current epidemic response plan to the outsourcing staff.
Purewal complained: We don't know who to ask, they may be so vague on purpose.
Unfortunately, there are many outsourcing engineers like Purewal in Silicon Valley, and they all face the same pressure.
The problem of poor welfare of outsourced employees has a long history
在硅谷，通过代理商及第三方公司雇用外包员工，成为科技企业最大程度保持正常运作的关键手段。此前，曾有外媒报道，谷歌超过一半的工作者是临时工，供应商或外包员工。劳务外包不仅让科技企业节约了大量资金，建立起更为精简的内部组织架构，同时也有效回避了种种与雇用及裁员相关的审查流程。2019 年，为了应对不断增长的技术人员的需求压力，Facebook 与谷歌先后要求与其合作的外包公司提高人员录用标准。
在听说外包员工患病后仍然需要居家工作时，谷歌员工们马上行动起来，联合向公司施加压力，要求谷歌尽快明确关于外包商的带薪病假处理意见。根据发布的邮件，一名谷歌员工在本周一向外包事务负责人递交了申请，同时建立起一个关于外包商及临时工应急计划的内部讨论组。
在申诉邮件中，员工们将观点发布在谷歌新冠病毒常见问题栏当中，并要求对“补偿”部分做出细化说明。一位谷歌员工指出，“这里的表述太过模糊。外包员工在疫情期间到底能不能正常拿到薪水？请作出明确解释。”
在讨论中，员工们承认目前的制度实际上是把正式员工与外包人员划分为两个不同的阶层。一位谷歌员工写道：
如果外包员工因为被迫外出上班而生病，代理公司和谷歌绝对不会听取员工自己的意见或者采取其他解决措施。那么，谁来对这些占比超过 50% 的外包人员的健康和人身安全负责？新冠病毒可不管你是正式员工还是外包员工。
另一位员工表示，在上周三的 Facebook 公司全体会议上，员工们就外包人员能否居家办公，以及 Facebook 是否打算为无法远程办公的厨房 / 清洁人员提供带薪休假等问题向公司方面提供质询。
早前，微软公司总裁 Brad Smith 曾发表博文表示，如果因安全原因而关闭园区，微软将向无法继续工作的外包人员按时薪支付工资。Smith 写道：作为一家企业，我们致力于配合公共卫生政策，并努力解决 COVID-19 病毒带来的经济与社会影响。他还向其他大型公司呼吁称，我们相信，每一家有能力的大型企业都应该采取这样的政策。
Soon after, Google, Facebook, and Amazon successively introduced their own plans to pay wages by the hour.
Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw said that they are still discussing whether to include all outsourcing personnel in the plan. The current announcement is mainly for 4,500 temporary workers in Northern California and the Puget Sound area.
After two days of unpaid leave before and after Christmas, Fran Baisden, an outsourced employee responsible for data analysis and content creation for the Google Shopping system, only got 6 hours and 58 minutes of paid leave. Even so, whether the vacation can be implemented is still unknown. Baisden stated that HCL Technologies, as the employer, can cancel the vacation at any time because the existing vacation policy requires the vacation to accumulate for a week before it can be counted. Fortunately, this outsourcer has just established a union, and employees have begun to question this policy.
Later this week, Amazon announced that it will provide two weeks of paid sick leave for all employees who have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus or are in quarantine, including part-time workers in the company's warehouse. Amazon also said that it will set up a relief fund to provide assistance to outsourced personnel and workers infected with the new coronavirus. If the delivery driver and other employees are diagnosed with the new coronavirus or are quarantined, they can apply for assistance that is "approximately equal to two weeks' wages."
More than a dozen outsourcing personnel who have worked for large technology companies said that the new crown virus epidemic has impacted their already limited medical benefits and remuneration packages. Behind this is the unfair treatment of outsourcing groups by technology companies. Some people hope to take this opportunity of the epidemic to urge the introduction of a fairer medical security system.
Reference link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/09/tech-contractors-coronavirus/
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/03/05/covid-19-microsoft-hourly-workers/