Instacart, the same-day grocery delivery, and pick-up service now heavily relied on by millions of Americans for their food supplies as COVID-19 rages, stands to see its operations crippled as thousands of its employees intend to go on strike Monday.
These employees called "full-service shoppers," are treated as independent contractors by Instacart. Shoppers are the people that shop and deliver orders to customer homes. They also interact with millions of customers. They're exposed to the threat of the COVID-19 coronavirus daily and are loudly complaining Instacart isn't providing them with the bare necessities for protection such as hand sanitizers.
They've consistently complained Instacart isn't providing them with enough protection against the highly-infectious COVID-19 coronavirus, which is suspected of being capable of lingering in the air for hours. They plan to strike Monday in some U.S. cities.
Strikers are demanding more protection against the risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. They demand they be given safety items such as hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, and sprays. They also demand hazard pay and expansion of Instacart's coronavirus pay to include Instacart shoppers with underlying health conditions. They also want an extra $5 per order and a default tip of at least 10% of the order total.
The strike is being called by Instacart shoppers and a newly formed non-profit called Gig Workers Collective.
"Instacart has still not provided essential protections to Shoppers on the front lines that could prevent them from becoming carriers, falling ill themselves, or worse," said Instacart shoppers and Gig Workers Collective in a Medium blog post.
Instacart offers up to 14 days of pay for an hourly employee or full-service shopper diagnosed with COVID-19. It added contactless alcohol delivery and additional promotions and provided bonuses for employees after learning of the strike threat.
The strike threat comes at an awkward moment for Instacart, which has seen a massive sales boost as Americans stay at home and shop from home to prevent infection by the coronavirus.
It was only last week when Instacart announced plans to hire 300,000 full-service shoppers in North America over the next three months due to increased demand from the pandemic. This boost will more than double its current workforce of full-service shoppers.
"The last few weeks have been the busiest in Instacart's history and our teams are working around the clock to reliably and safely serve all members of our community," said founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta.
Instacart customers shop for groceries using the Instacart mobile app or Instacart.com. Customer orders are delivered from the company's more than 350 national, regional and local retailer partners. Orders are shipped and delivered by full-service shoppers. Instacart is available in more than 5,500 cities across the U.S. in all 50 states, and Canada.
Amazon and Walmart recently announced plans to hire at least 100,000 employees due to increased customer demand.
