Instacart Reaches $46.5M Settlement Over Worker Classification Lawsuit
A settlement reached between the San Diego City Attorney’s Office and grocery delivery company Instacart will provide restitution payments for around 308,000 people who worked for the company in California who city officials say were improperly classified as independent contractors, it was announced Monday.
The proposed judgment between the City Attorney’s Office and Instacart has the delivery company agreeing to pay $46.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the city in 2019. The suit alleged the company misclassified workers as independent contractors, depriving them of protections and compensation they would have received as employees, such as overtime pay, paid breaks and reimbursement for expenses such as gas mileage and cellphone data.
The judgment will cover those who worked as Instacart “shoppers” between September 2015 and December 2020, with restitution funds divvied out based on the number of hours each person worked over that time period.
