In a Friday hearing, the Ontario Labour Relations Board considered the question of Amazon’s responsibility to contract workers. James Desmeres, Amazon’s regional liaison for courier companies who was formerly in charge of Toronto operations, testified that the companies “are in charge of managing their own drivers. We provide the guidelines to help them.” (The Logic)

Talking point: This is the 16th meeting of a challenge brought forward by the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Local 175 union, which alleges Amazon unfairly blocked unionization efforts among contracted drivers, and that the company had “complete direction and control” over the courier firms—a claim Amazon denies. In his testimony Friday, Desmeres confirmed the company chooses to work with several couriers, so no one company has a large share of their business in the event their commercial relationship ends; he called the approach “risk mitigation.” A scorecard is kept for each contracted worker, Desmeres said, but they are created and managed by the courier companies, not Amazon, which he said only gets involved if there are a high number of errors or safety incidents. The case could be precedent-setting at a moment when gig workers are seeking stronger labour protections globally. The hearing continues in March.