DoorDash to pay $1.6M to its workers for violating Seattle sick time policy

SEATTLE –

DoorDash can pay $1.6 million to its staff after a Seattle investigation discovered the corporate didn’t implement town’s required sick and secure time coverage.

The metropolis’s Office of Labor Standards mentioned this week that the San Francisco-based supply firm, which contracts staff to make meals deliveries, violated metropolis necessities for the second time, The Seattle Times reported.

The metropolis initially handed the necessities for meals supply and transportation app-based corporations in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seattle made the first-in-the-nation legislation everlasting in March as a part of an effort to strengthen labor rights for “on-demand” gig staff on apps resembling DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart.

Multiple DoorDash staff informed Seattle’s labor workplace that the corporate failed to determine a system for staff to request and use paid time, to offer well timed compensation to some staff to be used of the time, and to offer staff with month-to-month discover of their balances.

After town opened an investigation, DoorDash agreed in a settlement to pay $1.1 million towards secure and sick time credit for over 26,000 staff, $500,000 to 648 staff and greater than $8,500 in fines to town.

A DoorDash spokesperson informed the newspaper that because the non permanent coverage was enacted, the corporate has labored diligently to fulfill the brand new necessities and has “ensured that eligible Seattle Dashers have been paid out for their time.”

Now that the ordinance is everlasting, the spokesperson mentioned the corporate is making certain that staff are correctly notified of all accrued time and are proactively reaching out to offer them with extra details about the coverage.

In 2021, the identical metropolis workplace investigated claims that DoorDash didn’t credit score staff with the times from a earlier proprietor and failed to offer correct discover of the typical day by day compensation charge, leading to about $145,000 paid to virtually 900 staff.

“Seattle has led the way in providing gig worker protections during the most crucial times of the pandemic when workers put their health and the health of their loved ones at possible risk,” Steven Marchese, director of the Office of Labor Standards, mentioned in an announcement. “OLS will continue to enforce gig worker protections and all Seattle labor standards while providing support to businesses to ensure compliance.”

In 2022, greater than 6 million DoorDash drivers — all impartial contractors — fulfilled 1.7 billion orders worldwide.