(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . MA vs. Gig Economy [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-04 There is a court fight here in MA for gig drivers/shoppers to be classified as employees of the platforms rather than contractors; a push to get drivers/shoppers protections and benefits is being misrepresented by opponents as “against independence”. The ‘against” ads that I’ve been seeing are backed by Instacart, which implies that the shopping/delivery services are also affected (as they should be). This question didn’t get on the ballot two years ago, but it’s back. These drivers and shoppers (AFAIK there is no distinction between the two with Instacart) are required to use the platforms and so their wages are controlled by the gigs they accept. Which makes them employees according to the IRS (bolding mine): You are not an independent contractor if you perform services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). This applies even if you are given freedom of action. What matters is that the employer has the legal right to control the details of how the services are performed. I would think that requiring their app to be used to accept/complete the work counts as ‘employer control’; the platform can deactivate/fire workers at any time. It’s my understanding that once deactivated it’s difficult to appeal/get reinstated. My company has apparently outsourced its residential delivery service to Instacart, and customers are not happy with it. When a customer picks up their groceries directly from the store they know to get them home quickly (technically, once perishable products leave our premises in optimum condition we can’t be held responsible if someone leaves it in a hot car, etc). A lot of my customers have their own insulated bags. Once we hand an order off to an Insta driver, who knows? I’ve read complaints that perishable items were spoiled/warm when delivered, items smelled like weed or pets, items were just left on a customer’s porch with no notification from the driver (open to tampering or theft), etc. I’ve run deliveries out to Insta drivers for a good portion of my shift and come home with my work shirt smelling like weed (I actually have a second shirt stashed in my desk on the chance that this happens; not a good look for any of us to have that odor present while on the clock). The novelty has definitely worn off for our regular customers; most of them have either switched to our direct curbside pickup service or gone to another chain entirely for deliveries. (I’ve found out that Instacart has control over delivery areas, not my company; so areas that were served before now are not). This ballot initiative also raises an interesting question: We are also required (“other duties as assigned” I guess, this was dumped on all stores last summer with no explanation or even a chance to agree to it) to accept/shop orders through the platform using Instacart-owned hardware/software. We have no way of knowing if these orders are being picked up by customers themselves or the ‘delivery’ drivers. Instacart workers are paid by Insta, which isn’t happening; not even a raise for my department to reflect the extra work that’s now involved (my department is largely just me, so I’m effectively doing twice the work and we are prohibited from doing both store and Insta orders at the same time...so if orders come in on both systems at the same time I’m basically screwed unless I can force the useless supervisor to help out...if one of the orders isn’t done ‘in time’ I get flak about it). So if this is decided in the state’s favor would that then mean that we are also employees of Instacart? Which would mean that each of us who does handle Insta orders has a ‘second job’ (which the company generally dislikes). Being that I work in a union shop and these gig services are non-union...I’m pretty sure our contract prohibits non-union work while on the clock at a union job. So this will be interesting. I have never been able to get any information about what kind of contract the company has with Instacart; I would think that would be kinda important for us to know! None of us were able/allowed to actually agree to the platform T&C’s. I’m personally not a fan of the gig economy knowing how independent contractors can get abused and overworked with minimal protections. I’m all for this reclassification. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/4/2244779/-MA-vs-Gig-Economy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/