• Analysis
Prospect signs union access agreement with Google UK covering about 7,000 workers
The Prospect union signed a union access agreement with Google UK on Monday, just as new workplace access rights came into force, letting it organise among roughly 7,000 staff across Google's UK operations, including YouTube but not DeepMind.
What the agreement allows
The deal lets Prospect communicate with Google staff who are not unionised and encourage them to join. The union counts more than 160,000 UK members across several sectors and can now hold sessions inside Google workplaces, including its flagship King's Cross headquarters in London.
- •Prospect will organise among about 7,000 workers across Google's UK operations
- •YouTube is included; Google DeepMind is not
- •Unions gain the ability to reach non-unionised workers directly under such agreements
A signal to the tech sector
The Google deal follows a similar access agreement between Prospect and Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram and employs about 5,000 people in the UK. General secretary Mike Clancy said: "this access agreement is a powerful signal of intent that we can successfully negotiate agreements with even the biggest global tech companies".
He argued tech workers deserve a stronger voice on pay, flexibility, AI deployment and workplace culture, and said "having a relationship with trade unions is the new normal in the sector". "With our track record of delivering wins for members, I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together," Clancy added.
Google's response
Google said it signed the agreement to comply with the new UK workplace legislation, while maintaining that it already had good internal employee relations. A Google spokesperson said the step "fulfil[s] these new requirements while preserving the respectful, direct dialogue our culture is built on".
The wider overhaul
The agreement lands under the Employment Rights Act, which gives unions the right to enter workplaces to meet workers or communicate with them electronically. From January, employers must inform staff of their right to join a union. Until now, unions seeking recognition sometimes had to organise from outside the workplace - as in the GMB's thwarted effort at Amazon's warehouse near Coventry two years ago.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said last week he expected a wave of union recognition deals in the private sector over the next year. Google DeepMind is expected to agree a separate arrangement, with the Communication Workers Union seeking recognition there.
