Lawsuit Claims Instacart Shoppers Misclassified as Independent Contractors, Denied OT Pay

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Maplebear, Inc. faces a proposed collective action in which four former Instacart personal shoppers claim they and other workers were misclassified as independent contractors and denied overtime wages.

Filed by workers from Arkansas, Wisconsin and New York, the lawsuit alleges San Francisco-based Maplebear, which operates the Instacart grocery delivery service, should have treated the personal shoppers as bona fide employees entitled to time-and-a-half overtime pay given the strict level of control it exerts over their job duties.

Workers were instead paid a per-order piece rate starting at $7.00 with neither extra pay for the hours they worked above 40 each week nor proper reimbursement for business expenses related to using their own vehicles for deliveries, the complaint claims.

Per the complaint, Instacart personal shoppers, whose duties include receiving customers’ orders, buying groceries and delivering the items to customers’ homes, are subject to Maplebear’s control in that they are:

• Supplied with company lanyards to wear in stores;
• Assigned deliveries and limited to the assignments they’re offered;
• Not permitted to cancel more than 15 percent of their assignments without their accounts being deactivated;
• Given no opportunity to share in the defendant’s profits and losses;
• Not permitted to negotiate prices for their services;
• Not involved in Instacart’s business decisions;
• Subject to the authority of managers and other individuals; and
• Provided a company credit card to buy customers’ groceries.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that Instacart’s per-delivery reimbursement rate has resulted in “systematic violations of overtime premium laws.” According to the case, personal shoppers, who used their own vehicles for deliveries, were reimbursed at a rate of $0.60 per mile while driving from grocery stores to delivery locations but received no reimbursement for time spent driving from the delivery location to the grocery store for the next order. According to the case, each shopping trip and ensuing delivery for Instacart took approximately 45 minutes to an hour and a half for the plaintiffs to complete.

Because workers were not sufficiently reimbursed for gas, mileage and automobile expenses, Instacart received a “kick back” that cut further into shoppers’ overtime pay, the suit argues.

Per the complaint, the defendant was aware of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime requirements yet deprived personal shoppers of overtime pay for the hours they worked above 40 each week.

Initially filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on September 16, the lawsuit was removed to California’s Northern District Court on October 30.

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