{"id":32562,"date":"2019-10-08T15:23:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T15:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/?p=32562"},"modified":"2020-09-08T17:24:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T17:24:01","slug":"ufcw-helps-instacart-worker-testify-to-congress-on-gig-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/ufcw-helps-instacart-worker-testify-to-congress-on-gig-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"UFCW Helps Instacart Worker Testify to Congress on Gig Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"lead wp-block-paragraph\">In September, the International\u2019s Legislative and Political Action Department (LAPAD), in coordination with the UFCW Western States Council, arranged for a worker in the \u201cgig economy\u201d to testify before the House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maria Crawford, a gig worker from Altadena, Calif., spoke about her experience working for Instacart and other online work platforms as an independent contractor during a hearing on the \u201cMisclassification of Employees: Examining the Costs to Workers, Businesses, and the Economy.\u201d During her testimony, she called on members of Congress to support the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee or non-employee who has filed a complaint with respect to their employment classification, and wrongly classify an employee as a non-employee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am a proud wife of 25 years, a mother of two adult daughters, and a grandmother to two beautiful grandchildren,\u201d she said during her testimony. \u201cI worked in the I.T. field for a utility company for over 15 years, but lost my job to outsourcing. At the age of 54, I have found it difficult to start a new career. This difficulty, as well as the promise of good wages and flexible scheduling, brought me to the field of online platform work, often referred to as \u2018gig work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile I spend most of my \u2018gig work\u2019 time on the app Instacart, I also do work for Postmates, Door Dash, Caviar, and Uber Eats. All of these platforms classify me as an \u2018independent contractor,\u2019 but I believe I am a misclassified employee. That misclassification makes it hard for me to get the protections that would help make sure I have fair, steady pay\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cInitially, I found the pay on these platforms to be good, but over time, I found it more and more difficult to earn a living wage, despite it being my primary job and income that my family relies on. I think that they are misclassifying me as an independent contractor which means I am losing out on protections that could help make sure I have fair pay and hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"tw-max-w-217 tw-m-auto tw-px-6 rich-text contained-block\" data-module=\"paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can learn more about the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/115th-congress\/house-bill\/3629\">here<\/a>. A full transcript of Crawford\u2019s testimony is available&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edlabor.house.gov\/hearings\/misclassification-of-employees-examining-the-costs-to-workers-businesses-and-the-economy\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In September, the International\u2019s Legislative and Political Action Department (LAPAD), in coordination with the UFCW Western States Council, arranged for a worker in the \u201cgig economy\u201d to testify before the House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. Maria Crawford, a gig worker from Altadena, Calif., spoke about her experience working for Instacart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retailfood"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UFCW Helps Instacart Worker Testify to Congress on Gig Economy - The United Food &amp; Commercial Workers International Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/ufcw-helps-instacart-worker-testify-to-congress-on-gig-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UFCW Helps Instacart Worker Testify to Congress on Gig Economy - The United Food &amp; Commercial Workers International Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In September, the International\u2019s Legislative and Political Action Department (LAPAD), in coordination with the UFCW Western States Council, arranged for a worker in the \u201cgig economy\u201d to testify before the House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. 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