Instacart plans to terminate about 1,900 employees’ jobs, including the only unionized positions in the U.S., representing a fulsome embrace of the gig economy. From a report: The grocery delivery company already classifies most of its workers as independent contractors, whose ranks have ballooned to more than 500,000 during the coronavirus pandemic. But starting in 2015, the company hired a small…
Tag: Instacart
Fake Campaign Mail Masquerades as Bernie Sanders Endorsement for Uber/Lyft Ballot Measure
California’s elections include grass roots propositions that change the law directly while bypassing legislators. Uber, Lyft, and Uber-owned Postmates (as well as DoorDash and Instacart) have spent $185 million — the most ever spent — pushing a proposition that would keep ride-hail and delivery drivers as independent contractors, reports SFGate. “If it passes…gig corporations won’t have to contribute to Social Security,…
Tech’s New Gig Worker Underclass: Customer Service Reps Who Have to Pay to Talk to You
The Pulitzer prize-winning news nonprofit Propublica looks at Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service companies that help large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. And thanks to the pandemic, “business is booming.” Arise lines up customer service agents who work from home. It then sells this network of agents to blue-chip corporations. Arise…
California Amends Freelancer Law, But Still Pursues Gig-Worker Companies and Food-Delivery Services
“California is exempting about two-dozen more professions from a landmark labor law designed to treat more people like employees instead of contractors, under a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Friday,” reports the San Diego Union-Tribune: The amendments, which take effect immediately, end what lawmakers said were unworkable limits on services provided by freelance writers and still photographers, photojournalists, and…
DC Attorney General Sues Instacart, Claiming it Deceived Customers Into Thinking Service Fees Would Go To Workers
District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine announced a lawsuit Thursday against Instacart, claiming the grocery delivery service collected millions of dollars by deceiving customers into thinking that an optional service fee would be used as a tip for workers, when it allegedly went to the company instead. From a report: The suit echos an earlier charge against food delivery service…
Instacart Plans To Hire 250,000 More Shoppers
Instacart hired 300,000 workers in recent weeks to meet surging demand for grocery deliveries spurred by the pandemic. Now, the startup is seeking to hire another 250,000 workers over the next two months. CNN reports: The on-demand grocery delivery company said Thursday that it is seeking to hire the additional “full-service shoppers,” who are treated as independent contractors, in areas with…
Amazon, Instacart Grocery Delivery Workers Strike For Coronavirus Protection And Pay
Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, N.Y., and Instacart’s grocery delivery workers nationwide plan to walk off their jobs on Monday. From the report: They are demanding stepped-up protection and pay as they continue to work while much of the country is asked to isolate as a safeguard against the coronavirus. The strikes come as both Amazon and Instacart have said…
Instacart Employees in One Chicago Store Have Just Voted To Join a Union
“Gig economy workers may have won an important, if conditional, battle in their push for better conditions,” reports Engadget: Instacart employees in the Chicago suburb of Skokie have voted to unionize through their local branch of United Food and Commercial Workers, giving them more collective bargaining power than they had before. The move only covers 15 staffers who operate at the…