The spread of the coronavirus across the country has created a heightened sense of safety when it comes to protecting personal health, as the virus has largely spread from person-to-person contact.
The frontline against the spread of the virus includes not only medical workers, but also those working to stock half-emptied grocery shelves and delivering essential supplies door-to-door. However, many of these positions are filled by gig workers who are often not technically employees of the company they work for, as well as others who depend on a daily paycheck.
And, in North Texas, as part of a national Facebook group with 887 members, gig workers with on-demand grocery delivery app Shipt are planning a walkout Tuesday and asking members to boycott the app on Friday, saying their concerns and needs are not being met. They are also worried about the potential effect on customers and personal safety, as the company looks to hire thousands of new “shoppers” in the DFW region.
Nationwide, about 10,000 are estimated to participate in the walkout. Shipt shoppers are demanding $5 hazard pay for each order, 14 days of sick leave, protective gear and a return to its original commission-based payment model.
“Our concern is we are exposing not only ourselves, but we take these groceries from the store into a member's house,” Willy Solis, a local Shipt shopper who runs the group's Twitter account told NTX Inno. “We would really implore that Shipt just be more proactive to protect not only us but members and our family.”
Shipt said that it is working to find the best way provide protective gear to its shoppers and in an email on Friday stated it would be getting the equipment to its shoppers in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Shipt has been providing shoppers with CDC guidelines and recommendations.
Birmingham-based Shipt was launched in 2014 and was acquired by retail giant Target in a $550 million deal in 2016. In North Texas, the company works with Target and Kroger. The company has about 100,000 gig work shoppers.
Earlier this month, the company announced it was planning to hire nearly 6,000 new shoppers in the North Texas area as part of Shipt’s plan to hire about 100,000 full- and part-time positions across the country in an effort to meet a surge in demand, as many switch to grocery drop offs. And it’s this wave of hiring that has some of the company’s gig work shoppers concerned.
"My concern for the new shoppers coming in is they're going to get blindsided."
“There’s been a huge influx of orders and customers. Shipt’s response has been pretty simply that it’s a global pandemic and unforeseen situation,” Solis said. “However, the flip side is Shipt knew we had operation issues back in November. We couldn’t even handle known holidays. We were completely unprepared.”
In an email to NTX Inno, Shipt acknowledged that wait times on orders have been taking longer, due to extended lines at stores, where many items can be out of stock. However, it noted that it has extended forgiveness of late deliveries on all its orders, which before would have affected a shopper's standing with the company.
To help with processing, Shipt said it has reassigned some team members to provide more support and has opened a text hotline for shoppers, as well as a 24/7 anonymous report forum. However, shoppers told NTX Inno that they are sometimes met with no response through these mediums from the company.
In addition, Shipt said it is waiving any rating below five stars that a shopper receives. Normally, a lower rating would affect a shopper’s standing with the company, potentially leading to termination. Although, the shoppers we spoke with said they still feared possible retaliation from Shipt for receiving lower ratings.
“Shopper feedback has been incredibly important to improving the experience we create for our shopper community, members and retail partners,” Julie Coop, Shipt director of corporate communication told NTX Inno via email. “We encourage Shipt Shoppers to share their opinions and feedback about their journey with Shipt, and we offer multiple feedback channels where shoppers are encouraged to speak freely to Shipt about their shopper experience.”
Shoppers are also worried their new colleagues will be entering a workforce while not understanding their pay structure.
In January, Shipt began rolling out a new pay structure for some of its workers. The version 1 pay structure is based on the size of an order. Shoppers said on this version, it is pretty simple to understand about how much they will receive when they accept an order. However, version 2 takes into account process time, among other things. Under this version shoppers across the country have reported significant pay cuts of up to 50% for similar orders under the original version.
Shoppers said they are concerned the new hires will be automatically placed on the second version without their knowledge. However, Shipt said the new version is designed to “maximize our shoppers' earning potential and ensure they get the best value for their time.”
“The other concern we have… is these new hires are being set up for failure," Solis said.
Shipt shoppers are placed at increased risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus due to the work they do. While Shipt has begun no-contact deliveries, it is still giving customers the option to have groceries delivered directly into their homes. One Shipt shopper (not associated with the group) we spoke with, Luke, who asked to go only by his first name, said he has had to stop working due to a condition that puts him at risk. In addition, he said that as a med student at a local university, he has been raising concerns with the company for weeks and has received limited responses.
Shipt announced it would be offering two weeks of paid sick leave to shoppers who test positive for the virus, if they provide the company with a positive test result or quarantine notice from a public health authority. However, shoppers said the company is not accepting notes from personal doctors. Luke said the move won't have much of an effect as testing in many cities is highly limited.
“Do I have to work for money for financial survival or work [on protecting] my life,” Luke said.
"the efforts they’ve taken so far are... putting shoppers lives at risk for profit."
The shoppers that are part of the group Solis is a part of said that they are planning a walkout, like those seen by Instacart and at some Amazon facilities.
“We would like for them to proactively address COVID-19; the efforts they’ve taken so far are subpar and behind the curve and putting shoppers' lives at risk for profit,” Solis said.
