Harassment, unfair disciplinary measures and dismissal after an occupational accident: Amazon employees on Friday denounced the illegal practices of the e-commerce giant.
• Also read: US agency supports union victory at Amazon
• Also read: Amazon confirms 18,000 job losses
Several people admitted to facing reprisals after appealing to the Commission on Standards, Equal Opportunity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST).
According to these employees, among other things, the multinational offered money to withdraw complaints filed with CNESST after an accident at work.
“We were aware that Amazon was doing everything possible to evade the obligation to report any work-related injury to CNESST or to contest any claim,” said Mostafa Henaway, community organizer at the Center des travaux immigrants (CTI). “But to hear today that action is being taken against injured workers who are exercising their statutory right to compensation and healthy recovery, to hear that some of them are being promised by Amazon if their complaints to CNESST are withdrawn, to be told that Amazon going so far as to fire employees who have dared to sue after an accident at work is incomprehensible.”
Employer interference was also denounced in the midst of the union organizing process. Anti-union posters, messages urging people to organize, meetings with executives from across North America – the company would have used any means necessary to prevent the formation of a union.
“We saw how Amazon acted in the United States, we knew the campaign was going to be difficult. We’re facing one of the worst employers in the world,” said CSN Vice President David Bergeron-Cyr, describing the employer’s actions as a “real scare campaign.”