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A National Labor Relations Board prosecutor has concluded that Amazon should be held jointly liable with a contractor for allegedly using unlawful tactics to discourage delivery drivers in Atlanta from unionizing.
The announcement comes a few weeks after a different NLRB regional director in Los Angeles also concluded that Amazon should be considered a so-called "joint employer" of a separate contractor's employees and required to bargain with unions.
In both cases, the regional directors will issue formal complaints against Amazon unless the company settles.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is working to organize Atlanta-based drivers employed by Amazon contractor MJB Logistics, claims both companies have discouraged unionizing by making unlawful threats and giving the impression that drivers are being surveilled.
How might the conclusion impact Amazon?
The Los Angeles case involves claims that Amazon unlawfully terminated its contract with a company that employs unionized drivers without bargaining with the Teamsters.
A ruling that Amazon is a joint employer under federal labor law could be applied in cases involving other Amazon contractors and force the company to bargain with drivers' unions.
Amazon has argued in the past that it does not exert enough control over contractors' drivers to be considered their joint employer.
If complaints are issued against Amazon, they will be heard by NLRB administrative judges whose decisions can be reviewed by the five-member labor board. Board rulings can be appealed to federal appeals courts.
Joint employment an ongoing challenge for HR teams
Joint employment has been one of the most contentious US labor issues over the last decade, and the NLRB's standard for determining when companies qualify as joint employers has shifted numerous times since the Obama administration. Business groups favor a test that requires direct and immediate control over workers, while unions and Democrats back a standard that covers indirect forms of control.
The board adopted a rule last year making it easier to hold companies liable as joint employers. In July the NLRB dropped an appeal against a judge's decision striking down that rule.
The board is meanwhile facing claims by a growing number of companies, including Amazon, that its structure and in-house enforcement proceedings violate the US Constitution. Amazon has used such claims as a defense in an administrative case alleging retaliation against union supporters at a New York City warehouse.
The NLRB last week rejected Amazon's challenge to a union's 2022 election victory at that facility, the first and still the only successful union campaign in the company's history. The decision did not resolve separate pending claims that Amazon has illegally refused to bargain with the union.
