Judge Rules Instacart Misclassified Employees

Wednesday, February 26, 2020 | 1

A superior court judge ruled that app-based shopping service Instacart failed to prove it could rebut the presumption that its workers are employees under California’s ABC test, but declined to issue the mandatory injunction requested by San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, according to media reports.

Mara Elliott

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor on Feb. 18 issued what the San Diego Union-Tribune characterizes as a prohibitory injunction. The order makes it clear that the judge does not believe Instacart is complying with the law but saves the court from assuming the responsibility of overseeing its business transactions as likely would have been required had he issued a mandatory injunction forcing the company to take immediate steps to come into compliance with the law.

Taylor noted in his decision that he’s not interested in supervising Instacart and added that the court lacks the resources to do so.

Elliott said in a statement that the decision makes it clear that Instacart employees were misclassified as independent contractors and denied worker protections, which include workers’ compensation coverage, according to a report by NBC News.

NBC, which included links to the decision in its report, also said Instacart vowed to appeal the decision.

“We’re in compliance with the law and will continue to defend ourselves in this litigation,” a company spokeswoman said. “We are appealing this decision in an effort to protect shoppers, customers and retail partners. The court has temporarily stayed the enforcement of the injunction, and we will be taking steps to keep that stay in place during the appeals process so that Instacart’s service will not be disrupted in San Diego.”