GMB Union files legal action against Amazon for anti-union practices

The GMB Union has initiated legal proceedings against Amazon, alleging the company has been coercing employees into cancelling their union memberships.

Known as an Inducement Claim, this action allows Amazon workers to challenge their employer for encouraging them to abandon their rights to union representation and collective bargaining.

This development follows shortly after GMB achieved a formal recognition ballot at one of Amazon’s fulfilment centres.

If successful, Amazon would be required to negotiate with the union on matters such as wages, working hours, and holidays, marking the first such recognition outside of the USA.

The union’s claims against Amazon include pressures to leave the union through QR codes that prompt an email request to cancel union membership, mandatory anti-union seminars led by senior managers, display of anti-union messages across Amazon workplaces, and allegations of bullying and intimidation of union representatives.

Amanda Gearing, a senior organiser with GMB, described Amazon’s tactics as those of a “company out of control,” using its resources to prevent workers from unionising.

She said: “Amazon is a multi-billion-pound corporation, doing everything in its power to stop minimum wage workers from forming a union.

“Their latest American-style anti-union campaign proves they will stop at nothing to beat the rules that every other employer in the UK is expected to follow.