Google will "significantly" reduce its 10,000-odd contract workers worldwide, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The move may impact India where the search giant employs more than 1,000 people, primarily in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
A large portion of Google’s workforce in India is contracted out by "vendors" and does not show on its payroll.
"We have been thinking for some time, before the acute phase of the economic crisis, about significantly reducing the number of contract workers," the Wall Street Journal quoted Google spokesperson Jane Penner as saying.
Globally, Google has around 30,000 employees, of which only about two-thirds are officially on Google’s rolls.
"There are around 200 people working in the two offices of Google in Bangalore. From their ID cards, around 70% of the employees are vendor-supplied and not officially on Google’s payroll," said a Google employee from Bangalore, requesting anonymity.
Another Google employee from Hyderabad, who estimated the worker strength there at between 800 to 1000 people, also confirmed that a large proportion of the workers there were third party "contract workers". "It is very significant, but it is difficult to put a number to it since it is such a large campus," the Hyderabad-based employee said.