Google is to "significantly" reduce the number of contractors on its books. But it claims this has nothing to do with The Meltdown. And it insists there are no plans to layoff full-time employees.

"We have been thinking for some time, before the acute phase of the economic crisis, about significantly reducing the number contract workers," a spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. But she wouldn't say how many contract heads might be cut. At the end of its third quarter, Google had 20,123 employees and roughly 10,000 contractors.

Some contractors may be pleased that Google is putting them out of the misery. According to one former employee, the company treats contractors like second class citizens, barring them from certain company events and certain company perks. For instance, this former employee says, contractors are not allowed to attend the company's famous TGIF weekly get together, where full time employees are ostensibly given the right to ask Larry and Sergey any question they can possibly dream up. And, the employee says, they must pay for the world-renowned Google shuttle bus. ®

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