Amazon is ‘joint employer’ of some delivery drivers, NLRB says

Amazon The company should be considered a “joint employer” with some of its contract delivery drivers, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board said Wednesday.

The NLRB was reviewing two unfair labor practice charges filed in January over how Amazon treated some of its drivers at its Atlanta warehouse, known as DAT6. While Amazon has hired third-party drivers for years to meet its growing delivery volume, the NLRB’s regional director found that Amazon also worked with a contractor called MJB Logistics to hire the drivers.

Amazon has been fighting to avoid being designated a joint employer for its vast network of contract delivery companies. Lawmakers and labor groups, including the Teamsters union, have challenged the company’s policies, saying drivers wear Amazon-branded uniforms and drive Amazon-branded vans and have schedules and performance expectations set by the company.

The NLRB’s decision could force Amazon to negotiate with employees who want to unionize. The announcement was made by NLRB officials. A similar ruling was made last monthAmazon was found to be co-employing several subcontracted drivers at its Palmdale, California facility.

Over the past year, the Teamsters have stepped up efforts to organize Amazon’s delivery and warehouse workers. The union launched its Amazon division in 2021 to support and fund organizing efforts for workers at the company. Since then, the union has led numerous strikes at Amazon delivery facilities, and workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, opted to affiliate with the Teamsters in June.

In April 2023, drivers who worked for Battle-Tested Strategies alleged that they were terminated from their contracts by Amazon after they voted to unionize with the Teamsters. Amazon denied the allegations, saying it terminated their contracts before they were pressured to unionize.

In its decision on Wednesday, the NLRB also found merit to allegations that Amazon threatened to shut down its Atlanta drivers if they unionized, made illegally coercive statements to them and created the impression that it was policing the facility.

The NLRB’s decisions in Atlanta and Palmdale are not decisions of the board, group spokeswoman Kayla Vlad said in an email. Rather, they are the first step in the agency’s legal counsel litigating the claims raised in the unfair labor practice charges. If the parties don’t settle, a hearing before an NLRB judge will be scheduled. Either party can appeal the judge’s decision to an NLRB committee and, further, to federal court.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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