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Amazon, which has expanded its network of warehouses across Canada in recent years, said in documents it filed that it “categorically denies” the allegations and that the claims have “no basis in fact.”

The Seattle-based company took issue with the anti-union tactic allegations and with the union’s descriptions of work conditions it says couriers working for companies sub-contracted by Amazon face across North America.

The union alleges the couriers are typically paid within Amazon’s suggested wage rate range — between $15 and $17.50 an hour — and work 12 hour days, but can see those shifts reduced or extended depending on the number of deliveries assigned, weather, the time of year and traffic.

Every hour a driver must deliver between 15 and 25 packages and if they fall behind, they’ll be texted about their deficiency and directed to catch up, the union alleges. Drivers must work until all their packages are delivered and Amazon has the authority — and allegedly often exercises it — to send couriers back on the road to complete deliveries that were not successful during the day, the union says.

It is amid these conditions that the union alleges Amazon acted against workers at Burlington-based transportation company DEC Fleet Services, national courier service All Canadian Final Mile and Richmond Hill, Ont.,-based Stedfasts Inc., which each employed workers providing delivery services to Amazon for their Scarborough and Mississauga warehouses. These businesses and a handful of others are named as respondents in the labour board case.