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I was hoping to find something explaining why they weren’t employees previously. They drive Amazon branded vehicles, are called Amazon drivers, don’t seem to be doing anything else, and don’t seem to have been hired externally by another firm.
So how in the fuck were they not employees?! This is crazy, I hope Amazon gets royally fucked in some why they might actually feel.
Large corporations like to hire people as temps or independent contractors so they can give them all the responsibility of an actual employee but none of the benefits
Looking at you, Google
And both the company and employment agency have incentives to keep the "temp" as a temp for as long as humanly possible...
Amazon upped it here by hiring courier companies, even helping to found them, with really bad contract deals, rather than hiring individual contractors like companies had before this.
RIP employment agencies.
fuck employment agencies tho, they're unnecessary middlemen the same way for-profit health insurers are.
Just a way to get out of those pesky workers rights like insurance, paid sick days/vacation days, OSHA, and child labor laws
They're called "Amazon Freight Partners". Amazon sells you one of their trucks with $0 down and no driver experience required so you can "start your own business".
Then, you work as an independent contractor for Amazon. All you have to do is w/e they tell you since you have a truck to pay for.
In this case they're employees of a "delivery service partner".
It's roughly the same thing, except instead of driving a semitruck, you're hired as a contractor to hire and manage the delivery drivers, do everything Amazon tells you, and make sure your drivers do everything Amazon tells them as well.
That way Amazon can pressure you into abusing the driver's and claim it wasn't them, it's just that they hire terrible contractors. Refuse to negotiate because they don't work for them.
Which, quite clearly, isn't a thing you're allowed to do, since even if your employees get their checks from someone else they're still your employees since all the work they do is for you.
Well that sounds like a creative way to be screwed over.
FedEx ground is the same way. Not FedEx employees; owned by third parties. FedEx knows that in shipping the final mile tends to be the most expensive so they push it to the smaller more vulnerable companies.
Did they change? I worked for them as a sorter before they were FedEx Ground, and at that time it was similar, each driver was a contractor with FXG, but after the lawsuit (dunno what happened with that), and seeing how successful the scam was for Amazon, I wouldn't be surprised if'n they changed.
I think that where I live there are small companies that pay for the right to use FedEx logo-ed trucks and uniforms. I have had interactions with them because there was a driver that had a problem with some graffiti that was on the property where I live.
I contacted FedEx, and they gave me the low down. That was last year.
The name of the smaller operating companies are on the side of the FedEx trucks in smaller print.
If that changed I am ignorant to that. Also FedEx is not union.
FedEx is so very complicated, FXG isn't union, Federal Express is, IIRC something to do with them being under FAA authority. Not sure about FedEx Freight, FedEx LTL or FedEx Expediting. And that's just part of the mess of the company. As to the name thing, that was started by RPS, FXG's predecessor, and was a single contractor buying a route from RPS, with RPS supplying vans and uniforms much the way Amazon does with their companies, but it's entirely possible that some of those drivers bought multiple routes and formed up their own little company, or that FXG followed in Amazon's footsteps and switched to contracting with companies rather than individuals.
Amazon is particularly good at thinking up ways to avoid responsibility, they own no vans, employ no drivers, have no planes nor employ any pilots, and they don't own any tractors and don't employ any truck drivers.
God, that’s dirty. What a bunch of assholes, I’m glad they’re getting the stick.
The drivers work for Battle-Tested Strategies out of Amazon DAX-8 in Palmdale. Battle-Tested Strategies owns/leases all the delivery vans. Amazon doesn't own Battle-Tested Strategies but is the actual contractor for Amazon.
Just over a year ago Battle-Tested Strategies recognized that their drivers are a part of the Teamster's union. Then last summer Amazon essentially let go all of the union drivers.
The NRLB ruled that both Amazon and Battle-Tested Strategies are joint employers of those drivers. This means that not only can the Teamsters directly negotiate with Amazon for a binding bargaining agreement, then Amazon may be liable if they violated laws in regard to stuff like union busting and retaliation.
Here's an article from last summer about what happened that kicked this off.
Companies will often label someone a contractor so that they land in a different employment bucket and don't get standard employee benefits.
It's very clearly an abuse of the concept of a contractor, but sometimes companies break the law, intentionally or unintentionally.
i did a quick look of relevant job offers near me, and every single one of them was listed as "independent contractor".. i am glad that i don't have to seriously look for a job right now, and i hope something is done about these disgusting hiring practices soon
Ugh, that's shitty. Companies keep acting like they're confused about why they can't find anyone when everyone knows that the problem is that they just want better than disgusting benefits, mistreatment, shit pay and legal loopholes that somehow make that the workers fault.
There's a place for contractors in the employment landscape. A bakery doesn't need a staff plumber. A clothing store might only need a web designer for a few months to rebuild the website.
But a delivery company saying the people who do their deliveries, the core of their business, every day on an ongoing basis indefinitely are contractors? That's so obviously bullshit. We need oppressively stiff penalties for shit like that to keep them from doing it, because as long as it's cheaper to do it wrong, they have no reason to try to do it right.
Probably let them pick the hours they worked. If the money is good and its not abused it can be beneficial to the independent contractor. I think fedex works this way.
They usually don't. There's been increasing lawsuits over classifying employees as contractors because you can't just call someone a contractor and have them suddenly be excluded from a lot of labor laws.
Right. There's very clear rules on this. Generally, if you only have one "client", they set your hours, and/or control your vacation time, you're an employee. If you're a real contractor, then companies only have loose control over you.
Now watch some Federal Judge or SCOTUS come back and say the NLRB has no authority to do this like they just did to the FCC.
Or if the Wrong Wing wins they'll just eliminate the NLRB
This is especially true since SCOTUS repealed Chevron with Looper Bright. Effectively, gutting regulatory bodies of their ability to be the final arbitrator on how to apply statutes.
Supercommute that you dicks!
Do Uber next!
It's hard to be excited about a court understanding that an obvious lie is obviously a lie, but it's definitely good news.