The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of the First Region has decided that full-time, part-time and swing drivers at two Wilmington, MA, FedEx Home Delivery locations are direct employees under the company’s business model and have the right to seek union representation, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Rosemary Pye, Regional Director of NLRB who issued the decision, said, “FedEx Home exercises sufficient control over the driver’s working conditions to warrant a finding that they are employees of FedEx Home.”

In an emailed statement to FleetOwner, FedEx Ground said:

“This regional decision is not surprising or inconsistent with a previous decision by the same NLRB Regional Director, which is currently being challenged. The decision will allow a few FedEx Home Delivery contractors and drivers in two facilities to vote on third-party representation, and ultimately may be appealed to the national board. Our contractors have shown us repeatedly that they do not want third-party representation as we currently have no unionized facilities at FedEx Ground.”

FedEx Home Delivery is a separate operating division of FedEx Ground Package System Inc. FedEx Home Delivery is challenging Pye’s earlier March 23, 2006 decision that FedEx drivers at its Worcester terminal in Northboro, MA were statutory employees.

Jim Hoffa, general president of Teamsters, noted that the ruling is the seventh time since 1988 that NLRB has found drivers at FedEx Home Delivery are direct employees, rather than independent operators.