Accenture staff working at Google training AI move to unionise – The Australian Financial Review

Weve spent two years organising and are trying to get a fair shake, said Laura Greene, a multimedia team leader with Accenture.

Basically, we decided that the only way to get real, lasting change is to formally unionise and, ideally, negotiate at the bargaining table.

Accenture acknowledged that it received a letter from workers requesting that the company recognise its union. We always value the ability to listen directly to our people and respond to their concerns, Rachel Frey, an Accenture spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Google said it expected all of its vendor workers to be treated fairly, in compliance with its supplier code of conduct.

We, of course, respect these workers right to join a union or not, but this is a matter between them and their employer, Accenture, said Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokeswoman. Google does not control their employment terms or working conditions.

In a letter sent to management Wednesday afternoon, workers said that over the four-year life of their contract, they had consistently requested that Google and Accenture consider their expertise and experience in executing their work, but were routinely disregarded.

Instead of recognising us as highly specialised workers worthy of respect, we are treated as resources for Google to exhaust, despite our expertise and how much genuine care we put into this complex work, they wrote.

In January, the workers said, they were recruited for a top secret project working on the companys then-unannounced chatbot, Bard.

They were told to answer theoretical prompts and fact-check Bards responses, a job that required research and creativity.

For a brief period on the Bard project, Accenture workers were also asked to handle obscene, graphic and offensive prompts, they said. Though the workers were told they could skip certain tasks, they also risked getting penalised in other ways for passing on the work.

At least one person filed a complaint with human resources at Accenture. In February, the work they had been doing was transferred over to their Accenture counterparts based in Manila, the workers said.

The change raised concerns among the US staffers that the work they are assigned could be taken away at any point and offloaded to cheaper labor elsewhere.

The outcome of the Google workers organising effort may not be immediately clear.

When most employees at a work site agree to unionise in the US, a company can voluntarily recognise and negotiate with the labour group or refuse to do so unless the union first prevails in a government-run election.

The process of determining who should be eligible to vote in an election can take weeks or months, and companies often use that time to fight organising efforts by using tactics such as mandatory anti-union meetings.

And even after securing union recognition, progress can be slow. YouTube Music workers hired via the staffing agency Cognizant Technology Solutions voted to unionise in April, but Alphabet is appealing a US National Labour Relations Board officials decision deeming it a joint employer of the workers.

The legal battle could drag on for years, as could also end up happening with the Accenture staff.

The Accenture workers said theyre undeterred by the prospect of a long campaign. What we really want is longevity in the job, and more respect and autonomy from Google, said Tahlia Kirk, a writer and team trainer with Accenture.

Bloomberg

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Accenture staff working at Google training AI move to unionise - The Australian Financial Review