Amazon scores big win at NLRB over whether it’s a joint employer with DSPs. A process moving through the National Labor Relations Board that could have found Amazon a joint employer with its Direct Service Providers (DSPs), the independently-owned companies that deliver parcels for Amazon, appears to have ended with a huge victory for the online retailer.
Late last month, G. Rebekah Ramirez, an NLRB administrative law judge, approved an agreement between the NLRB General Counsel and Amazon that was first revealed in April.
The Teamsters, at that time, voiced strong opposition to the deal. The union has done so again. Its attorneys quickly filed a request to appeal what it called the ALJ’s “defective unilateral settlement” between the NLRB and Amazon.
At issue is a complaint filed in September 2024 by the regional director of the NLRB’s Region 31, a geographic area that includes the Amazon DAX8 facility in Palmdale, California.
The complaint was over Amazon’s actions toward a DSP called Battle Tested Strategies (BTS) that operated out of DAX8. BTS is believed to be the only DSP where its rank-and-file voted to be represented by a union–the Teamsters–and where the DSP owners recognized the vote.
Amazon has denied the charge that the cancellation was because of the union recognition, stating instead that the contract was terminated due to repeated safety violations.
The resulting investigation by the regional director led to the complaint that, as ALJ Ramirez said in her review of the earlier proceedings, “at all material times, Amazon and BTS have been joint employers of BTS’s employees working at the DAX8 facility.”
Given this position of joint employer, Amazon was required to recognize and bargain with the Union.
The ruling marks a significant shift in labor policy, as it establishes that Amazon is not solely responsible for the actions of its DSPs.
The ruling has significant implications for the future of labor relations between Amazon and its Direct Service Providers.
