Amazon delivery drivers walk through a picket line outside an Amazon delivery station in Skokie, Illinois, on December 19, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images
Amazon The company has vowed not to retaliate against workers who strike as part of a settlement with federal labor authorities.
The company will restore “illegal” unpaid leave from employees who quit their jobs, “enabling all Amazon employees to strike in the future without losing their UPT,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced in a release Tuesday.
The National Labor Relations Board’s proposed settlement would restore unpaid leave to more than 100 employees.
Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hurd told CNBC in a statement that the company does not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
“While we believe our team appropriately managed these situations, we have agreed to resolve the issues so that we can continue to work directly with our employees and make Amazon a great place to work moving forward,” Haas said in a statement.
According to an internal employee handbook cited in the NLRB complaint, Amazon provides front-line employees with a limited amount of unpaid time off, which they can use for “last-minute issues or emergencies.” Employees risk termination if they use UPT time in excess of their allotted time.
Starting in 2022, the NLRB cited multiple instances in which Amazon withheld UPT after employees left the company. In at least one case, striking workers feared losing their jobs because their UPT was deducted “negative” by Amazon, according to the complaint.
“These demerit points and demerit points are themselves unlawful coercions because they alert employees that protected activity brings them closer and closer to termination,” the NLRB said.
The Teamsters, one of the largest labor unions in the United States, has sought to organize Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers for years. The company created an Amazon division in 2021 to support and fund unionization efforts among its employees.
Amazon’s front-line employees have been organizing their workplaces for more than a decade with varying degrees of success. Only two Amazon facilities, a warehouse on Staten Island and a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia, have had successful union campaigns.
Amazon employees at seven U.S. delivery hubs walked off the job in December 2024 in a strike organized by the Teamsters. The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon workers, a claim the company denies.
Amazon maintains that employees have the right to choose whether or not to join a union. But the company has faced widespread scrutiny from employees, lawmakers and federal agencies over its labor practices and has been accused of anti-union tactics.
In 2024, the NLRB accused Amazon of maintaining “overbroad” time and attendance policies that “secretly threaten employees across the country with consequences up to and including termination for absenteeism or strikes,” which it said violates federal labor law.
The NLRB complaint stems from complaints filed by the Teamsters and other Amazon employees at facilities in New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Minnesota and other states.
According to the settlement, Amazon agreed not to fire or “other discriminate” against employees who exceeded their UPT balances or who participated in a strike or work stoppage and were fired after the UPT hours.
The company also plans to post notices in employee break rooms at “all 1,300 Amazon facilities nationwide” informing workers of their right to organize and the terms of the settlement, the Teamsters said.
