Is Google Korea no longer dream workplace?

Employee activism grows at big tech companies over fears of layoffs following yearslong hiring spree

The logo of Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City. (Reuters-Yonhap)

Google’s biggest round of layoffs across its global operations has forced workers into a game of chance to keep their jobs. Amid escalating job insecurity, a labor union has been set up at the Korean unit to organize some 850 workers and speak out their concerns.

“With the ongoing job cuts within the US tech industry, employees have been concerned about their job security and decided to establish a union,” Kim Jong-sub, head of the Google Korea union, said upon its launch earlier this month.

“Our purpose is to improve employment stability, working environment and welfare overall,” he said, hinting at the possibility of cooperation with unions in other countries.

The union declined to reveal the exact number of its membership, citing “employee protection.”

In January, Google announced a 6 percent reduction in its total workforce this year, affecting about 12,000 jobs across the platform giant’s sprawling business globally.

Google Korea also notified employees of the impending job eliminations. By March, the union said, 80 percent of workers who received a recommended resignation email had left the company.

“Without knowing the exact logic behind unilateral layoffs, remaining workers also asked for consultations, leading to organizing efforts to form a union early this year,” said an official from the Korea Finance & Service Workers Union, the umbrella union in which the Google union is affiliated.

Working at Google has been one of the most coveted jobs in Korea, coming with hefty incentives even compared to other highly paid jobs at chaebol such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor.

According to a recent poll conducted by the anonymous workplace community app Blind, Google Korea employees showed the highest job satisfaction among employed people here. Their average happiness rate stood at 75 out of 100 points last year, marking the highest score a fourth year in a row.

Despite its reputation as a “dream workplace,” Google Korea has followed in the footsteps of other US tech firms such as Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta with a wave of massive job cuts, the union noted.

Google is not the first case among the Korean units of global companies for workers to organize. Microsoft Korea formed a union in 2017 to resist unilateral restructuring and forced early retirement. Employees of Oracle Korea also went on a full-scale strike six months after establishing a union in the same year.

But the latest round of massive layoffs at big tech companies is sending shock waves through the sector as it comes following an industrywide hiring spree during the pandemic that saw surging demand for digital services. Google alone saw more than 50 percent growth in total employee count from the end of 2019.

Labor experts predict employee activism to heighten in Korea, in particular, considering the nation’s labor law that is designed to better protect workers than in the US.

Kim Sung-hee, a professor at the Korea University Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, said Google and other US tech companies are required to meet a set of stricter conditions to lay off workers here.

“There must be a pressing business need that can be proven, efforts must be made to avoid layoffs and those affected must be selected reasonably and fairly,” the professor said. “The country’s labor laws are relatively stronger than in the US, where layoffs can take place if a company thinks there is a need. Those with shorter job tenure are ousted first.”

“Backed by stricter labor law, forming a union could help employees get more powerful protections,” he added.

By Jie Ye-eun(yeeun@heraldcorp.com)