Amazon is once again in the spotlight for questionable labor practices, this time accused of retaliating against employees protesting the company’s RTO efforts.
Amazon has stirred controversy among its employees with its insistence they return to the office. To make matters worse, executives have failed to point to verifiable data on the benefits of an RTO, instead saying the decision was a “judgment call” or “serendipity.”.
In response to the company’s ongoing RTO efforts, as well as layoffs, employees at the company’s headquarters planned a walkout for May 31. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has now accused the company of retaliating against those employees. The NLRB says Amazon “interrogated its employees regarding their protected, concerted activity.”
Read More: Amazon Exec Angers Staff By Admitting He Had ‘No Data’ to Support RTO Mandates
The NLRB says one of the employees that organized the walkout was placed on PIVOT, the company’s performance improvement plan, before being offered a severance package.
THe NLRB concluded that Amazon “as been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in ยง 8(a)(1) of the [National Labor Relations] Act.”
Amazon has a long history of anti-union and anti-organizing activities. A judge ruled in May that CEO Andy Jassy went too far when he made anti-union comments in interviews. Similarly, in late 2022, another judge ordered the company to stop its anti-union activities. The company has gone so far as to hire Pinkerton detectives to dissuade unionization efforts and disturbed investors with its activities enough for them to call on the company to stop pressuring workers.
The NLRB’s latest ruling merely adds to Amazon’s growing labor issues.