With European Commission inquiry still in place, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is faced with another lawsuit by one of its contractors. Contractor accused the company of not abiding with the overtime payment rules and his termination when he asked for increasing the hourly limit of the contract.
This is the second incident against a major industry following the lawsuit on FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), which lost the case earlier this year. Under the judgement, its drivers working on contract basis were considered as employees by the court. The past few months have attracted more attention towards the way companies classify their employees.
In this case against Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Jacob McPherson, plaintiff, was working as a “site merchandiser for magazines” in the Play unit of the search engine giant with hourly pay-rate of $35. He began working in 2013 and worked at different New York offices of the company. According to McPherson, he had an hourly work limit of 30 hours but the work required more efforts and time from his end. He even did overtime in addition to the 40-hour weekly limit. When he discussed the matter with Google, the company terminated his contract without paying for any overtime.
The lawsuit filed by McPherson includes federal labor standards’ violation and associated damages.
This is not the only incident where Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is under the legal scanner, as the company is in trouble with the French authorities over defamatory articles. The French court has asked search engine giant to remove defamatory articles from its networks or face heavy penalties. The problem gets worse as the French authorities are likely to penalize both the subsidiary as well as the parent company in the matter.
Earlier this year, “Right to Be Forgotten” came in light under which the European users have the right to ask for removing certain links that might affect their privacy.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
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