Google managers did not tell workers they were being laid off, with around 100 Google Cloud workers finding out about the staff reduction from the media.

Employees from across the company delivered a petition Monday calling for more notice periods and for more support for laid-off workers.

The petition, reportedly signed by more than 1,400 staff, said that the 100 staffers were given 60 days to try to find new jobs within Google, but the company did not provide sufficient information or opportunities for those workers to do that.

"Google has continued to maintain that workers are simply being offered an opportunity to transfer," the petition's authors, who were members of the Alphabet Workers Union said in a statement. "This ignores the reality that many workers do not qualify for currently available roles and the complexity of the transfer process means that most workers are facing the termination of their livelihood in under two months."

David Newgas of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA and Program Manager at Google, added: “Google wants to keep its reputation for treating its workers well but doesn't want to pay for it, so it is turning employee roles into contract work, stripping workers of the quality working conditions they deserve. Google’s current employee workforce and those at pending acquisitions are watching Google’s behavior and recognizing the need to take collective steps to protect our jobs. Google can and should be a company where all workers enjoy the rights, benefits, and pay on the job that they have earned."

Alongside the layoffs, Google announced that it was going to “more flexible pricing models and options" for its cloud service. In reality, the provider plans to increase prices for a number of Google Cloud products.

Multi-region Nearline storage will see price increases of 50 percent. Google Cloud’s Coldline Storage Class A will double in price. Load balancing will increase in price, and reading data in a Cloud Storage bucket will no longer be free.