The e-commerce giant is a joint employer of some of the thousands of contracted drivers that deliver its packages, a California branch of the National Labor Relations Board has determined. (The Logic)

Talking point: Amazon has long maintained that it doesn’t technically employ its drivers, despite its heavy influence on things like their schedule, pay and how they’re disciplined. It’s leaned on the contract status to avoid negotiating with drivers on working conditions and labour agreements. The labour board’s decision applies only to a group of drivers in Palmdale, Calif., that voted last year to unionize with the Teamsters, but which Amazon has refused to bargain with. Drivers’ employment status with Amazon has been at the heart of several legal challenges in Canada, including a years-long fight against a union seeking to represent delivery drivers in the Toronto area. The Teamsters said in a statement that the decision in California “sets the stage for Amazon delivery drivers across the country to organize” with the union. An Amazon spokesperson denied any wrongdoing, saying “there is no merit to the Teamsters’ claims.”