Instacart workers to push for federal audit over 'missing tips' in week of protest
Instacart workers plan to file a claim with the Department of Labor on Monday
The popular grocery delivery app Instacart appears to be unpopular among a key group of people — its workers — who are launching a week of protest on Monday.
Instacart workers, known as shoppers, plan to file a claim with the Department of Labor on Monday requesting an audit of Instacart over "missing tips," according to a post on Medium last week.
"Instacart has been caught misappropriating and manipulating tips several times over the course of years," the post said.
The protesting workers will also contact the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about what they say is a "dangerous" lack of weight restrictions on the orders that shoppers fulfill.
"Many of us have been injured while working and are ineligible for state workers’ compensation programs," the post said.
Part of the workers' struggle is their classification as independent contractors rather than as employees, something that has also drawn criticism for other companies that rely on the gig economy, like Lyft and Uber.
Instacart has been at odds with its shoppers before. The company had to cough up $4.6 million in 2017 to settle a lawsuit over its claims that Instacart shoppers could "earn up to $25 per hour," according to The Washington Post.
The Post also profiled Vanessa Bain, a California woman who has shopped for Instacart for years and now wants shoppers to take collective action.
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"I understand that they artificially inflated what they could afford to pay us, but since then, everything has just dropped so low," Bain told the Post. "Their response is always to cut from our pay to figure out how to make this work."
FOX Business' inquiry to Instacart was not returned at the time of publication.
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