British Columbia’s Labour Relations Board has rejected a bid by e-commerce giant Amazon to overturn an earlier decision that awarded union certification to workers at a facility in Delta, B.C.
In a new decision dated Tuesday, a Labour Relations Board panel ruled that it agrees with the board’s original decision in July that ordered remedial certification due to Amazon ramping up hiring “in order to thwart the union’s certification application.”
The panel says evidence presented by union Unifor showed “a deliberate decision by the employer” to increase its employee roster to dilute union support during its membership drive.
The decision also says the move for Amazon to intentionally pad its employee list and then using it to argue that union does not meet the threshold for certification “is manipulating the employee list in order to avoid certification.”
Amazon had applied for the Labour Relations Board to reconsider its original July decision, and the latest decision says the company argued that the last board panel had erred in applying labour laws to the case — as well as in it awarding remedial certification to the union.
The company had argued that evidence showed “there was an operational need for additional staff” while what was described as a “pervasive anti-union campaign” was protected by employer free-speech rights.
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The panel, however, disagreed.
“In our view, the original decision adopts the correct approach, which is to consider the employer’s conduct as a whole,” the decision says.
Citing precedent, the panel writes, “We note that the kinds of activities in which the employer engaged in the present case are the ‘classical hallmarks of an interference in the formation or selection of a trade union.'”
The panel says that Amazon’s move to “knowingly and improperly” pad the employee list is “sufficiently egregious” to justify its original decision to order union certification.
“From our perspective, the intentional padding of an employee list for the purpose of undermining an organizing drive is an even more fundamental attack on its employees’ associational rights,” the latest decision says.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, Unifor National president Lana Payne says the decision is a “message” to B.C. employers to not interfere in unionization “or to suffer the consequences.”
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