YouTuber sues Google Spain for ‘unfair dismissal’
- November 24, 2023
- 0
AND A Spanish YouTuber sued Google Spain for unfair dismissal. It is a case that, according to the UGT trade union, whose legal services were in charge of
AND A Spanish YouTuber sued Google Spain for unfair dismissal. It is a case that, according to the UGT trade union, whose legal services were in charge of preparing the lawsuit, could be a precedent for the labor rights of multimedia content creators.
The lawsuit seeks to prove that there was a working relationship between Jota (Jotapov), a creator of satirical political content from the official channels of the parliament and various city councils, and YouTube. Their claims are based on the fact that the YouTuber regularly offered his services on the platform and received rewards derived from advertising revenue.
Google Spain demonetized Jota’s Último Bastión channel last August. Since then, he has not received any income from it, and the YouTuber also claims that the company withdrew money that was already in his YouTube payment account.
According to Reuters, his lawyer said they are considering the reported facts “breakdown of employment« saying that they asked the court to classify the relationship between Jota and YouTube as employment and his actual dismissal as unfair. The reasons why the channel was demonetized are not known.
Google assures that the content creators are not its employees and that in this particular case the Jota channel does not comply with YouTube’s monetization policies. Specifically, Google Spain assured that they are «We are very committed to the success of creators, which is why we share most of our revenue with them. As we meet with hundreds of creators every year, we get a lot of feedback. However, contrary to what is claimed, YouTube employees are not in line with the nature of the relationship.«.
After the lawsuit was filed, both parties participated in a conciliation event, during which no agreement was reached. The lawsuit then continued to be processed and a trial date was set for June 26, 2024.
It is a pioneering lawsuit to access the existence of an employment relationship between a content creator and YouTube, «because there are sufficient indications of dependency and alienation to establish employment in this particular case where the content creator regularly provided his services and received remuneration derived from the advertising revenue that Google manages through his YouTube channel.«.
Therefore, if it is favorable to the plaintiffsentence could be linked to compensation for unfair dismissal, by unilaterally demonetizing the plaintiff’s channel. In this case, it could also mean that the company meets its social security contribution obligations.
The UGT states that this requirement “It aims to open a discussion and point out the pressures this group suffers in developing their work which is their livelihood and the need for these workers to be recognized as employees of the company.«.
In addition, he assures that, just as the unions have already done with the workers of the digital delivery platform, «It is clear that she is determined to fight the fake self-employment and uncertainty that these tech giants are trying to impose by trying to circumvent labor law. We therefore hope that other workers in similar situations decide to sue the companies that own the social networks; that their rights be recognized as content creators, as editors, as moderators, in short, that all people who work in the digital world have the same rights as the rest of the working class«.
Source: Muy Computer
Donald Salinas is an experienced automobile journalist and writer for Div Bracket. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of automobiles, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the latest trends and innovations in the automotive industry.
