“Not Our Employees,” Says Google, After Laying off 200 Contract Workers Over Pay And Working Conditions

Google fired over 200 contractors without a warning. These people were working on its big AI projects, like Gemini (Google’s chatbot) and AI Overviews (AI summaries in Google Search). These layoffs are different from their usual ones because there seems to be a lack of accountability. When asked for a response, Google states that these workers are not its employees and are not responsible. Well, one might think, but they worked on Google’s project, right? The issue is complex (with pay disputes and retaliation issues coming to the surface), and here we broke it down for you. 

Sudden Layoffs Without Warning 

Notably, these people were working for Google on contract via a company called GlobalLogic (owned by Hitachi). Hence, Google didn’t hire them directly. Google fired these 200 employees suddenly with no warnings, and they were let go in 2 different rounds.

One worker, Andrew Lauzon, received an email on August 15, 2025, stating that his contract had ended. Upon asking why, Google replied, “ramp-down on the project,” which is a vague statement meaning the project is cut short.

He told WIRED that he joined in March 2024 and has been working on rating and improving answers given by Google’s Gemini chatbot since then.

Who Were These Workers?

Though they were only hired on a contractual basis, they are called “super raters,” meaning highly skilled people who:

• Evaluated AI responses: This is an important assessment to check how the AI is interacting with the end users.
• Fixed mistakes: Otherwise, the AI will lose its credibility.
• Rewrote AI answers: It is vital for an AI in 2025 to sound more natural, engaging, or else the users will have several options in the market.
• The workers are no ordinary professionals. Many held master’s or PhD degrees in fields such as teaching, writing, and the arts.
• Their role is significant because Google’s engineers don’t have time to constantly check and fine-tune every answer.
• One of the workers, while speaking to WIRED, described their role as crucial as “lifeguards on the beach.”

Unionising, Pay Issues & Retaliation Claims

It is suspected that these layoffs only came after the workers were trying to form a union. Asking for better pay and working conditions. The complaints include:

• Huge pay differences → Super raters who are directly hired by GlobalLogic made $28–$32/hour, whereas the contractors on the same task got only $18–$22/hour.
• Workers faced retaliation → One of the workers was fired for speaking up about wage transparency. And a few others were fired for supporting the move (by contract workers).
• After learning of the low working standards, about 18 workers had formed a union in December 2024. By February 2025, the number had risen to 60 members.
• As part of the retaliation, the company banned its online social chat spaces where they connected to speak about the issue (because these employees worked remotely).
• When one employee, Ricardo Levario (union organizer), was fired minutes after complaining about the chat ban. The reason given was “violating the social spaces policy.”

Wider Industry Pattern of Layoffs

Experts say that Google is not alone, and it’s a widely normalized problem in tech outsourcing. According to them, whenever the workers form a union to address the issues, the companies cut jobs as retaliation.

Several similar movements are happening in the world right now:

• Recently, in Kenya, AI data labelers came together to form the Data Labelers Association, asking for better pay and mental health support in the workplace.
• Content moderators across Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia have formed a Global Trade Union Alliance for better working conditions.

Google’s Response

A Google spokesperson, Courtenay Mencini, in a statement (quoted by WIRED), said, “These individuals are employees of GlobalLogic or their subcontractors, not Alphabet. As the employers, GlobalLogic and their subcontractors are responsible for the employment and working conditions of their employees. We take our supplier relations seriously and audit the companies we work with against our Supplier Code of Conduct.”

Fear of Being Laid Off 

According to WIRED, GlobalLogic is working on developing automation systems to replace these raters and their tasks. One worker said to WIRED that:

It’s just been kind of an oppressive atmosphere…” if we try to organise or even talk too much, we risk being laid off.”