City weighs PPE law for gig delivery drivers
San Francisco supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed a measure requiring gig companies to provide food delivery drivers with PPE and paid time to disinfect their vehicles and wash their hands. The bill also applies to workers at grocery stores, drugs stores and restaurants.
“Delivery drivers have been working throughout this entire pandemic, putting themselves at risk, and providing an essential service,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, who sponsored the bill, which has support from at least eight of his colleagues, guaranteeing its passage. “Many people who are vulnerable and not able to leave home rely on these delivery workers for food and medicine. Yet still in many cases these workers are not provided with the protections they need to work safely.”
San Francisco passed an emergency measure in the spring with similar requirements. The new bill is a permanent measure, so it will require a second vote next week.
Delivery companies that include Uber, DoorDash, Grubhub and Instacart all said they already provide their workers with free personal protective equipment, such as masks, gloves and disinfectant.
Uber, Grubhub and Instacart did not reply to questions about if they compensate drivers for time disin
fecting their vehicles.
DoorDash said it pays drivers based on the time it would likely take them to wipe down hightouch surfaces in their vehicles. It said it ships PPE free to drivers, who can reorder it weekly.
Uber said it has distributed 21 million masks, surface disinfectants, hand sanitizers and gloves to more than 1 million drivers and delivery people in the U.S. and Canada. The San Francisco ordinance applies to its Uber Eats delivery service, but not to its
ride service.
Grocery delivery service Instacart said it had introduced numerous health and safety measures for shoppers, including more than 700,000 health and safety kits that include a reusable mask and hand sanitizer.
Grubhub said it gives drivers access to free PPE each month, including masks and hand sanitizer.
San Francisco resident Saori Okawa, who works for both Instacart and DoorDash, said she was unaware that
DoorDash offers PPE.
“There’s nothing in the app that says you can order it,” she said. “They should put it in the app for workers to see.”
Instacart’s kit includes a single loosefitting mask and just 3.4 ounces of hand sanitizer, which she consumes in a couple of days, she said, so she doesn’t bother ordering it anymore. Instead she said spends about $45 or $50 out of pocket every two weeks on masks, sanitizer, disinfecting spray and gloves. She takes about 35 to 40 minutes a day, before and after work and between deliveries, disinfecting her car on her own time, she said.
The bill comes against the backdrop of Proposition 22, a ballot initiative passed by voters in November that keeps gig workers as independent contractors with some benefits and with a guaranteed wages of at least 120% of minimum wage plus 30 cents a mile while they are fulfilling orders.
Prop. 22 says that cities and the state cannot impose their own requirements on gig workers, but none of the gig companies has publicly said the San Francisco law violates the measure, which they spent $220 million to get passed.
“Prop. 22 is clearly intended to occupy the field when it comes to local laws and regulations, but it doesn’t prohibit us to do things that are necessary for health and safety,” Haney said.
San Francisco has received only two complaints about violations of the emergency ordinance. Workers told the city said that Caviar (owned by DoorDash) and Postmates (subsequently bought by Uber) did not provide or reimburse for PPE. Both companies complied after being contacted, according to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.