Three-day Chipotle delivery #GuacOff called for 4/29 - 5/1
Postmates workers to reject Chipotle jobs to call for sick leave, hazard pay, and safety protections
Stay-at-home orders have led to a food delivery boom, and apps like Postmates are ramping up partnerships with restaurants like Chipotle. These chains are getting some added business, and customers are seeing free deliveries and other promotions — but the essential workers doing the delivery work don’t have sick leave, don’t have PPE or other safety supplies, and aren’t getting more than a few bucks for each delivery.
In fact, Postmates workers get paid as little as $2 to spend half an hour delivering a burrito bowl. Two dollars is about what Chipotle charges for a scoop of guacamole.
14 days paid sick leave: Postmates claims to provide sick leave — but the reality is, their policy simply doesn’t pay out. Workers who request leave don’t get a response — or worse, they get deactivated from the app & can’t get reactivated. Without access to sick leave, Postmates workers have no choice but to continue working even if we’re sick or immunocompromised — putting ourselves, our customers, and the public at risk.
$5/delivery hazard pay: Postmates pays out just 7 cents per minute for the time we spend waiting for orders — that’s $4.20 an hour for work that involves exposing ourselves to risk of contracting COVID, especially at restaurants like Chipotle that churn out hundreds of delivery orders a day.
Safety protections like PPE, no-contact delivery, and the right to cancel unsafe jobs. Crowded restaurants like Chipotle don’t always practice safe social distancing or even let delivery workers wash their hands in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Postmates has provided no PPE at all to the vast majority of workers. They’ve given customers the option to choose no-contact delivery — but workers don’t get the choice. And if a driver cancels a job because it’s too risky, they can get kicked off the app.
Chipotle has boasted about providing their own employees sick leave & a 10% pay bump during the coronavirus crisis— but the Postmates workers delivering their food lack any of these essential protections. In fact, Postmates continues to pay sub-minimum wages — and to cover the costs of free delivery, they are driving more and more “stacked” orders, where multiple deliveries are required on the same jobs for hardly any more money.
And if there’s a long wait at the restaurant because of added take-out & delivery business? Postmates pays just 7¢ a minute for wait time — $4.20/hour.
Postmates shouldn’t be allowed to get away with putting workers — and the public — at risk during the crisis. And restaurants like Chipotle shouldn't get off the hook when they’re partnering with a company that pays workers less than they charge for a scoop of guac.
To connect with a Postmates worker taking part in the #GuacOff, contact Sage Wilson at sage@workingwa.org
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