Instacart extends employee option to Texas contractors
Online grocery delivery service provider Instacart has announced that it is now offering its contracted in-store shoppers in Houston and Austin, Texas, the option of applying for employee status. As previously reported, Instacart already offers this option to its instore shoppers in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Washington, DC.
“With today’s Texas additions,” the company has announced, “Instacart now offers this option in 7 of its 16 cities, with more to come.”
In an official statement issued today (20 July), Instacart commented: “Based on its experience in other cities, Instacart expects approximately three-quarters of its Houston and Austin in-store shoppers to apply for these part-time positions. Those who choose to remain contractors can move into driver or combined driver/shopper roles. ”
The company statement added: “Instacart offers part-time employees competitive wages that exceed the local minimum wage in each of its markets.”
Instacart says that its aim has been to “change the traditional grocery delivery space by connecting customers with personal shoppers who shop for and deliver grocery orders in as little as one hour”.
When Instacart announced last month that it had extended the employee options to instore shoppers in Chicago, following a successful trial in Boston, it said that the arrangement would not apply to the drivers who delivery the groceries to the clients’ homes. The drivers, said Instacart, would continue to be classified as independent contractors. This still appears to be the case.
Instacart says that it is introducing the new policy to boost efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, most observers maintain it must be seen in the context of the recent lawsuits brought against shared economy companies like Uber and Homejoy by workers who claimed that they have been misclassified as contractors, when they should instead have been classed as employees (and therefore entitled to benefits like medical insurance).
Uber recently found itself on the wrong end of an important ruling by the California Labor Commission; but the company will contest the ruling and it has built up a strong war chest for waging its legal battles. Homejoy – whose website provides online booking for home cleaning services – is a much smaller operation, and it will be shutting down at the end of this month.
Uber has been trying to drive home the argument that the legal dispute in California has been pursued by a handful of individuals who (the company claims) are not representative of the thousands of drivers who like the “flexibility” and “control” of being independent contractors. It is trying to stop the CLC ruling from spreading into a wide class action.
Although Uber has deep pockets, it faces a formidable opponent. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lead plaintiff attorney in the lawsuit against Uber, specialises in worker misclassification suits and FedEx and Starbucks are among her most notable scalps. In addition to the Uber cases, she has also recently filed lawsuits against Lyft, Postmates, Cavier and the unfortunate Homejoy.
