Boycott Shipt and Protest Shipt's Essential Worker Pay Cut!
Happening at Shipt's HQ in Birmingham and Target's HQ in Minneapolis
Shipt is cutting the pay of its essential workers nationwide, right in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic, by forcing its workers to transition to a nontransparent black box pay scale that they did not want. The Shipt List will be protesting and fighting for the rights of all Shipt workers to receive fair and equitable pay. Read more about why we protest and how you can participate, even if you cannot join us!
For Shipt Members
First, The SHIpT List would like to thank you for your membership, and for your orders. We would not have our jobs as shoppers without you.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, working conditions for Shipt Shoppers have been deteriorating. Americans have been urged to stay out of grocery stores, a hotbed for COVID-19, and have been routinely warned that shopping in stores is a health hazard. Most stores now require patrons to wear masks, and many others are asking us to wait outside in long lines before we can even begin to shop. Shoppers in stores routinely disregard mask orders and social distancing requirements.
Shipt has made numerous promises to its shoppers and members, including immediate PPE, but has failed to deliver on its promises. Many Shipt shoppers are fulfilling your orders without proper protection, risking both our health and quite frankly, yours. Instead of focusing on the urgency of this issue, Shipt has focused on the PR nightmares of inadequate shopper PPE and the lack of fair pay.
Shipt’s CEO, Kelly Caruso, sent out an email to members outlining all they have done to support shoppers and members. This email is filled with misinformation. Here is our breakdown of Ms. Caruso's email:
“We are adding more Shipt Shoppers nationwide.”
This is a major problem. Shipt has been adding shoppers without providing adequate training or support. Members are not experiencing “above and beyond’ service, as Shipt claims, and have routinely reported significant delivery delays and quality issues — deliveries hours later than the delivery window, frozen items delivered warm, missing items, and no communication from their shopper — all a result of Shipt hiring quickly and recklessly. Shipt has not been able to provide its current shopper workforce with proper PPE, placing shoppers and members at greater risk of COVID-19. Instead of trying to protect existing shoppers, they are prioritizing hiring new shoppers.
“We have doubled our customer and Shopper Support teams.”
While this may be true, this is inadequate. Shipt's Shopper Support Team had extended wait times even before the pandemic. Shoppers and members are still waiting hours to resolve issues. Shoppers are paid per order, NOT hourly. When we have to spend extra time waiting for Shipt's support team to answer our call, we are not paid for that time. Extended hold times for basic support is common. Wait times have reached as long as four to six hour holds, leading to members complaining on social media in attempts to find a better channel to resolve issues.
"We are taking care of Shipt Shoppers."
This is a blatant lie. In a survey of shoppers that we conducted, over 82% of active Shipt shoppers nationwide have not received any PPE from either Shipt or Target. At the beginning of April, an email went out to “active” Shoppers that they could order free PPE kits comprised of gloves and hand sanitizer. Many shoppers who have ordered these kits either did not received them or had their PPE shipments arrive over a month late.
In an email to Shipt Shoppers on April 3, Shipt announced that Shoppers would be able to pick up gloves and masks at their nearest Target store within two weeks. Target publicly tweeted that they would not be giving PPE to delivery workers and Target managers routinely refuse to give masks to Shipt shoppers. We are greatly disturbed that Shipt would lie about their refusal to adequately protect all workers during a worldwide pandemic; especially considering the high health risks of being in a grocery store during this pandemic.
Shipt Shoppers with a COVID-19 diagnosis or those told to quarantine because of coronavirus symptoms are not being paid as Shipt promised. Shipt is requiring Shoppers to provide documentation from a public health authority (such as the Department of Health), the CDC, or the FDA. The CDC and FDA do not provide testing, and in many parts of the United States, it is difficult to be tested for coronavirus by local health authorities. Shoppers who have sought CDC and FDA testing are routinely referred to pharmacies or primary care doctors, but Shipt has repeatedly told shoppers that having a diagnosis and note from a doctor or pharmacist is insufficient, according to the Shipt Shopper Hub.
COVID-19 pay is also not being extended to shoppers who are immunocompromised or are too high-risk to shop.
Shipt also said that there has been a 30% increase in pay for Shoppers, implying that Shipt is paying shoppers 30% more per order. This is untrue, and Shoppers have not received any sort of hazard pay, except in areas like Seattle, where hazard pay is required by local ordinance. In our nationwide shopper survey, 85% of Shipt shoppers reported that they have not received increases in order pay from Shipt, while 12% of shoppers report pay increases solely due to the fact that they had taken on more orders and are therefore earning that additional pay by increasing their workload, not by having it given to them by Shipt.
Shipt told customers that the most active Shoppers received a “surprise bonus.” In emails to shoppers and interviews with the press, there were no “surprise bonuses” but rather “spot bonuses” paid as recognition to individual shoppers who interacted with the news media. Some shoppers have noticed increases in tip earnings, but this has nothing to do with Shipt HQ “taking care of shoppers” since tips are wholly paid by members like you.
We hope that you will join us in asking Shipt to provide us with immediate PPE, hazard pay, and expanded COVID-19 sick leave. You can reach Shipt directly at (205) 502–2500 or support@shipt.com to express your frustration about this misinformation and mistreatment of Shipt’s essential workers.
