Abraham Jewett  |  October 25, 2021

Category: Labor & Employment

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Instacart Instacart shoppers and class action
(Photo Credit: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock)

Instacart Shoppers Misclassification Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

  • Who: An Instacart shopper has ordered up a class action lawsuit against the owner of the app-based delivery service. 
  • Why: The shopper claims Instacart misclassifies its workers as independent contractors and fails to pay them the minimum amount required by law. 
  • Where: The class action lawsuit wants to represent Canadian Instacart shoppers and is pending in Ontario Superior Court.

Instacart misclassifies its workers as independent contractors and fails to pay them the minimum amount required, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Ontario resident Garnet Taylor claims Instacart is in violation of employment standards legislation by misclassifying and underpaying its full-service shoppers. 

In his class action lawsuit lodged against Maplebear Canada, also known as Instacart, Taylor wants to represent all current and former Instacart shoppers in Canada who have worked for the company since July 2015.

Instacart’s Shopper Practices Violate Canada’s Labor Laws, Says Class Action

The plaintiff claims Instacart shoppers have no control over the conditions of their employment and risk getting low ratings or being disqualified from working if they don’t follow strict guidelines set by the company. 

At the same time, Instacart is depriving its workers of benefits and minimum wage by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees, Taylor argues. 

The class action lawsuit also points out that, in addition to earnings being dictated by Instacart, shoppers also incur vehicle and mobile phone expenses that cause many workers’ final pay to come out to less than minimum wage. 

“Instacart shoppers have played an essential role during the pandemic and stepped up at a time when many Canadians were unable to leave their homes and do their own grocery shopping,” said the lawyer representing Taylor, Tassia Poynter of Sotos Class Actions. “Instacart shoppers deserve to be treated fairly and paid what they are entitled to under employment standards law.” 

Under similar circumstances, Uber offered its drivers in Canada a “Flexible Benefits Fund” last month in response to Class certification being given to workers who argue they should be classified as employees

Are you an Instacart shopper who feels you are being misclassified as an independent contractor? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Tassia Poynter of Sotos Class Actions. 

The Instacart Shoppers Class Action Lawsuit is Taylor v. Maplebear Canada Inc., et al., Case No. CV-21-00670603-00CP in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.


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32 thoughts onInstacart Misclassifies Shoppers, Fails To Pay Minimum Wage, Says Class Action

  1. Donnaj says:

    Also!! 1/2 of Instacart’s profits for 2020-2021 & 2023 should be given back to their shoppers and demand to be out out of business plz. I would love to see intacart shut down & hopeful to have the market open up for a more honest law abiding business in Canada.
    Instacart already made the news on CBC network for the discrepancies of KM pay in Canada as they were paying us in Miles instead KM and of course they denied it all.

  2. Donna Al jundi says:

    I want to be part of the class action suit in Ontario. I live in BC. This company is shameless! For one it needs to be shut down. 2 open up for other companies to get into that same market in the same way but obiding by each provinces labour laws. Instacart breaks most labour laws and gets a way with it by classifying its workers as independent contractors. We are not as if I was, I should be able to ask for what I want and think is fair for my services. I don’t Instacart dictates how much they pay you for each batch! I certainly WILL NOT PAY MYSELF 5-7/ per hour. My car got hit & run twice parked in the shopping Center while I shopped that came out of my pocket. No compensation or protection for this, what about high mileage & wear n tear on my vehicle that cannot be covered under the 5-7 per hour pay. There is so much much more wrongs with this company.. such as fairness of pay/batches given to shoppers it would seem they can stop batches from showing up to veteran shoppers in Order to give them to new shoppers etc.. their practices is appalling & illegal almost everything they do and offer does against every labour law rules we have. Plz let me know how to join this lawsuit: thank you .. I want to see Instacart pay & I wan them not to be able to practice their bad business here anymore.

  3. Charbel Zeidan says:

    10 dollars for 57 items 78 units and 5 km to drive that’s ridiculous it will take you about one hour and a half to finish the total delivery that leave you at $7.50 a hour minus the gas that you paid lol and to send you 50km on a 30 dollars pay and 50 items to pick up it’s about 6 dollars a hour many people wanna complain but scared of being deactivated whatever instacart says it’s all a lie I have seen that they promise to make 22 a hour or if you are more efficient you can make 45 a hour that’s all a big lieeeee

  4. Jessica Cynthia Lipscomb says:

    I am joining

  5. KATRNA WASHINGTON says:

    I am an instacart delivery driver and I feel that instacart has been treating us unfair we used to supposedly get minimum wage it says when you sign up $22 to $30 per hour I have been taking batches and it seems like they’ve changed so much just keep changing where they are like forcing us to take $5 batches $7 batches and big orders lot of mileage you know I did a order just tonight and it said that I would get a $5 tip and I contact instacart and I was told that I didn’t qualify for it when when I took the batch it said I did then I contact them again with another person I spoke with they said I would get it in an hour still haven’t received it so I just feel the instacart is treating the the workers unfair because we sit for hours and it’s tell us to go to places with highlighted spots and we sit there for hours and then they give us batches for like $5 $10.14 and sometimes it’s two and three orders for these batches that’s only mostly playing 15 at the most sometimes if you’re lucky 1918 or 20 which requires some heavy lifting I’ve had people order cases of waters like 10 cases and we’re only getting paid like $15 for this batch for order like that I feel that we should be getting paid way more especially if it’s two or three orders what the workers don’t understand sometimes when they’re new that you may get a batch and it may say 10 items but if you look at the units it can say 22 units meaning that the customer is ordering multiple items of the same item so if they’re ordering water it can be one water but it can be 10 cases so yes I feel that as a worker for instacart yes we’re treated unfairly and the longer you’ve worked for instacart the less you start getting paid

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