The IT Nerd

Shareholders of Amazon.com, Inc. are urging the company to assess whether it has lived up to its own commitment to respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 

Amazon’s upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) on May 22 comes amid ongoing unionization efforts at the company – including recent applications in the U.S. and U.K. – and media reports alleging intimidation, retaliation, and surveillance.  In Canada, British Columbia and Quebec-based unions have recently filed applications to represent Amazon employees, following numerous concerns about working conditions at Amazon Canada’s facilities. 

To get to the bottom of these complaints, a group of more than 20 global investors led by SHARE, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, has filed a shareholder proposal urging Amazon’s Board of Directors to assess how the company’s actions align with its own policies and obligations to respect international human rights law, including the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. 

The investors maintain that effective and transparent due diligence on human rights and policy implementation is needed to reassure shareholders when allegations of misconduct arise. 

The proposal’s 22 co-filers represent approximately $US 3.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and include investors from across Europe and North America. Both major proxy advisory services, ISS and Glass Lewis, are now recommending voting for a shareholder proposal urging Amazon’s Board of Directors to assess how the company’s actions align with its own policies and obligations to respect international human rights law.

Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, Director, Shareholder Advocacy for SHARE had this to say:

“Beyond the ethical imperative to respect human rights, any failure to align workforce practices with internationally recognized human rights norms represents a threat to shareholder long-term value. That’s why, in the past couple of years, we have seen global investors taking stances in favor of better labor relations in an effort to mitigate those risks in their investment portfolio. In the past six months, several companies answered the call, including Starbucks and Apple. We are still waiting for Amazon to follow suit and, frankly, to do even better.” 

This will be interesting to see what happens, and if Amazon will fight this. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on May 16, 2024 at 8:57 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Amazon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.