After fears of layoffs within the company, dozens of Google Japan employees united under the Tokyo Managers' Union.
According to Ken Yamazaki, assistant professor at Meiji University, who also tweeted a copy of the group's press conference declarations, it is the first labor union at Google Japan.
The Unionization Comes At A Time When Google Is Cutting Most Of Its Staff Worldwide
Because some of them are in Japan on work visas, the employees decided to organize out of fear that they may be unexpectedly fired, Engadget notes.
Their worries arose from the tech giant's January statement that it would be laying off 12,000 employees worldwide, or 6% of the entire firm.
They said that their American colleagues were fired with merely an email sent in the middle of the night.
Additionally, the staff members of the Japanese office had been left waiting for the axe to fall for the past few weeks.
The employees claimed that following that declaration and hearing about the fate of the company's employees in other nations, they decided to unionize.
It is important to note that in order for a dismissal to be valid in Japan, the employer must demonstrate that there are valid reasons to do so.
However, while professing to have issues with the worker, some businesses nevertheless fire employees without cause.
With this, the group believes that unionization would save them and other Google Japan staff from sudden cutbacks.
Read More: Elon Musk Continues Twitter Layoffs Despite Saying Cuts Were Final
Google's Japanese Workforce Is Not The Only One Facing Threats Of Layoffs
The company's Area 120 internal incubator, which develops experimental apps and products, was one of the divisions hardest impacted by the job layoffs in the US.
The division used to work on 20 projects at once, but now just three are being developed at once because the majority of the team members were let go.
The lives of foreign workers are being upended by the wave of digital layoffs in the United States at businesses like Facebook-owner Meta Platforms, Google, and Amazon.com.
In India, unless they can find another job or modify their immigration status, workers who are laid off risk having to leave the country in 60 days under the terms of their visas.
According to estimates from the industry, Indians made up nearly a third of the roughly 200,000 tech positions lost in the US over the last year.
They made up about 75% of petitions for special visa holders that were approved in 2021, as per a report by Japanese Times.
As a result, the lives of many Indian laborers have recently been turned upside down, and for the worse for that matter.
Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, apologized profusely and claimed full responsibility for the company's actions that resulted in the decision to let off 12,000 employees.
He acknowledged that over the past five years, the internet giant embarked on a recruiting binge, but that Google hired for a different economic reality than the one that exists today.
Related Article: Amazon Sets For Another Round Of Layoffs Affecting 18,000 Employees
