Tech Crunch reports that Instacart, the grocery delivery service, "is facing a boycott" from contract laborers who shop its clients' stores. The reason? These contractors "are unhappy about the company’s decision to eliminate tips in favor of raising guaranteed delivery rates. Although Instacart positioned the move as a way to smooth out the earnings curve" for its contractors, "some of those affected by the change say it will instead reduce their incomes dramatically. In the case of top shoppers, some expect to lose up to 50% of their earnings, they claim."
Instacart justified the policy change by saying that 20 percent of customers don;t tip. which it felt was unfair to the contractors. But the contractors accuse Instacart of trying to "muddy the waters" in a way that will hurt them financially.
According to the story, "Hundreds of shoppers are now preparing a nationwide boycott on October 16th through 17th, when the new pay structure goes into effect. The hope is that enough will join in to impact the workload and delivery times, in order to force Instacart to reconsider the changes. It could be difficult to have a sizable impact, however, given that there are tens of thousands of shoppers working across the U.S., and they have no real way to organize outside of social media and word-of-mouth."
Instacart justified the policy change by saying that 20 percent of customers don;t tip. which it felt was unfair to the contractors. But the contractors accuse Instacart of trying to "muddy the waters" in a way that will hurt them financially.
According to the story, "Hundreds of shoppers are now preparing a nationwide boycott on October 16th through 17th, when the new pay structure goes into effect. The hope is that enough will join in to impact the workload and delivery times, in order to force Instacart to reconsider the changes. It could be difficult to have a sizable impact, however, given that there are tens of thousands of shoppers working across the U.S., and they have no real way to organize outside of social media and word-of-mouth."
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