Instacart, an American grocery delivery service company, has been receiving criticism over its treatment of workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Food writer Corby Kummer spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about how many Instacart workers haven't received safety kits or extended pay for having to quarantine.
Instacart had announced back in March that it would offer two weeks of extended pay to in-store shoppers diagnosed with COVID-19, or placed in quarantine by an authority.
"[Instacart] did everything they could to break their promise, and essentially break the health of workers," Kummer said. "A number of Instacart workers claimed the two weeks of pay, that Instacart promised them if they were ill, but Instacart denied the claims and made them go through red tape hurtles until the workers would give up."
Instacart is not following through on its new guidelines to support the health of its workers, Kummer added.
"They say that they care and that they're putting millions into healthcare, but all they do is cycle through workers, give the longtime workers worse routes, and don't care at all about their health," he said. "I will tell everybody I know, 'Do not use Instacart.'"
Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.
