Michael Hiltzik: Gig firm Instacart, facing revolt by its workers, joins Uber's campaign to pay them less
The gig-economy firms Uber and Lyft have acknowledged that their business model is based on treating their workers as independent contractors, not employees. But when it comes to exploiting its front-line workers, the grocery delivery service Instacart may be in a class by itself.
At least, that's the conclusion one could draw from the gig company's history of worker relations. Instacart, which relies on non-employees to assemble supermarket baskets on order and deliver them to customers, is currently undergoing a worker walkout for the fourth year in a row. The walkout, which began Sunday and will run through Tuesday, is a protest against an Instacart policy that workers say shortchanges them on tips.
Meanwhile, an open letter published Nov. 1 and signed by 212 of the company's "shoppers" - the workers who assemble the orders and sometimes make deliveries too - excoriates Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta for his "well-documented history of unscrupulous actions against Instacart's Shoppers."
These include efforts to divert tips into corporate coffers and
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