Google Has Been Underpaying A "Shadow Workforce" Of Contract And Temp Workers For Years, Report Reveals Google, who hilariously is included in many "ESG" funds, underpaid "thousands" of international contract workers across several countries, a new report by the New York Times revealed on Friday. Even better is the fact that the big tech company reportedly discovered it was violating pay-parity laws in numerous countries and then chose "not to immediately compensate the underpaid temporary staff," according to follow up reporting by Insider. In Europe and Asia, pay-parity laws require companies to pay similar wages to full-time and temp workers who perform similar jobs. The U.S. has no such laws. Google employs over 900 temporary workers in countries like the UK, Ireland, India, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Poland. The company's temp and contract workers outnumber its full time staff, the report says, creating a "shadow workforce". Google chose only to correct its rate of pay for new employees after finding the error. The company also reportedly banned contractors from talking to full time employees and made temps "wear red badges" that led to a "sense of shame", one employee told Insider. Google manager Alan Barry, who is based in Ireland, wrote in e-mails that the rise in pay would "give rise to a flurry of noise/frustration". He also wrote: "I'm also not keen to invite the charge that we've allowed this situation to persist for so long that the correction required is significant." Spyro Karetsos, Google's chief compliance officer, told Insider: "While the team hasn't increased the comparator rate benchmarks for some years, actual pay rates for temporary staff have increased numerous times in that period. Most temporary staff are paid significantly more than the comparator rates." Karetsos continued: "Nevertheless, it's clear that this process has not been handled consistently with the high standards to which we hold ourselves as a company. We're doing a thorough review, and we're committed to identifying and addressing any pay discrepancies that the team has not already addressed. And we'll be conducting a review of our compliance practices in this area. In short, we're going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and we're going to make it right." Tyler Durden Mon, 09/13/2021 - 21:00