New Report Spotlights Tech’s ‘Shadow Workforce’

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new report released this week details the experiences of Silicon Valley’s “shadow workforce” -- the temporary contract workers tech companies hire through third parties. These contractors, who are disproportionately women and people of color, receive different pay, benefits and protections than employees. While tech companies have fared well during the pandemic, according to the report authored by TechEquity Collaborative, “the temporary, contract, and contingent workers who are classified differently from their directly-employed counterparts despite performing critical roles for the companies—have been locked out of tech’s prosperity.” We’ll discuss the yearlong investigation’s findings about this “two-tier system” of employment and why some are pushing to change it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:34.6	From KQED.
0:36.6	Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Over the last half decade,
0:41.8	labor organizers were able to call attention to the janitorial workers and bus drivers who help
0:47.0	keep Silicon Valley running. In many cases, blue-collar contractors have won improved wages and
0:52.4	working conditions, but there's another class of technology industry workers
0:56.6	who toil inside the big company offices but aren't tech company badged employees.
1:03.3	Instead, they're employed by staffing agencies
1:05.9	and work long-term temp jobs at the name brand corporations.
1:10.3	They don't get the same salaries and benefits,
1:12.6	and perhaps unsurprisingly, based on the data that can be gathered, they're more likely to
1:17.6	be women and underrepresented people of color. Joining us to talk about the tech industry's forgotten
1:23.6	workforce, we've got Catherine Bracey, executive director and founder of the Tech Equity Collaborative,
	...

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