What HR is (and isn’t) obligated to do when faced with demands from non-unionized workers

More than 1,200 Google employees have signed a petition for “job security” in anticipation of job cuts, CNBC reported. The petition calls on the company to offer buyouts and severance pay, and to not “force” low scores on poor performance reviews to make the case for job cuts.

If these requests sound similar to those a union might make in collective bargaining, it’s because they are, said Steven Nevolis, a labor and employment attorney at Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole in New York.

“One, they want job security, which is always covered in the collective bargaining agreement. Two, they want some sort of order by which layoffs would occur,” he said. “Meaning that they would first offer buyouts, and then if they don’t have the number of buyouts, they would then proceed to layoffs, only if necessary. And three, they want guaranteed severance.”

But because Google employees have not unionized, he said, “This is just a plea. There’s nothing that they can do that will legally require Google to abide by their terms or their requests, unless they petition for a union, and get certified as a union, and then bargain.”

Despite that, he advised against ignoring such demands. HR leaders in similar situations should align with their organization’s executive team on how best to respond, Nevolis said. The response, he added, should not diminish employees’ requests and communicate that they are being taken seriously.

“At the end of the day, there’s the legal risk, and then there’s the employee relations risk,” he said. “This falls more into the employee relations risk of wanting to ensure that you keep morale at that same level, that you don’t do anything that would negatively affect morale for those that would stay [at the company].”

Google did not respond to HR Brew’s request for comment on the petition.