What happens when a Postmates worker tries to get their COVID sick pay?
I was thought to have COVID-19 and put in mandatory quarantine by my doctor for 14 days, so I tried to access Postmates COVID relief. What did Postmates offer me as compensation, after three weeks of waiting & hours of phone calls with support? $30.
Guest post by Collin, Postmates worker in Whiteford, MD taking part in the Postmates Workers #GuacOff Wednesday 4/29 - Friday 5/1 - click here for more info.
I started getting sick with COVID symptoms in mid-March. I had a fever and lost my sense of taste, and I’d been doing Postmates really heavy so I knew I’d been exposed to a lot of people. I didn’t want to get everybody sick, so I stayed home and set up a telehealth appointment.
The doctor wasn’t able to get me set up with a test right away, so he put me under a mandatory quarantine while I was waiting. I knew I couldn’t go without pay — at the time, I was working full-time on Postmates, putting in 12-hour shifts every day. It’s how I keep money on my table, put gas in my tank, and buy food for my cats. I depend on that income.
So after i was told to quarantine, I applied for COVID sick leave through Postmates.
Postmates said they’d give 14 days of paid sick leave to workers who were under mandatory quarantine. They didn’t say anything about how much it was — but I assumed it would work like actual sick pay, that I’d be paid based on how much I worked.
Figuring out how to apply was complicated. The website said their COVID relief was only for Postmates workers who had an account with Starship, their health savings fund, so I had to set up an account with them first. The Starship people told me the next step was to fill out a survey through Postmates in order to qualify.
I contacted Postmates about the survey, and answered the questions they asked me — whether I was under a mandatory quarantine, whether I’d taken a test, whether I tested positive. I answered honestly, and Starship told me I’d get paid the following Friday.
When next Friday rolled around, the money hadn’t come.
I called Postmates, and they told me they’d look into it, but it would take 24 hours to see the money in my account.
24 more hours passed and I didn’t see anything, so I called again. This time, they said it could be 24 to 48 hours.
I waited — and once again, nothing. I called them back a third time, and this time they told me Postmates support can’t do anything about that, it has to go to accounting. They said they’d “escalate” it and someone would call back.
No one called me back. And I still didn’t have the money.
So I called them again — this time they said they had no record of my application. And again, they said they’d “escalate” my claim.
A week later, I still hadn’t been contacted. I called again — this time, I spent hours on the phone because they put me on hold and hung up on me. I told them I had been quarantined, that I needed the money right away because I had missed out on so much work. Finally, I got somebody from accounting on the phone to verify my information and get me paid.
And 12 hours after that call — three weeks from my initial application — the money was in my account…$30.
I went through all that trouble for $30.
I average anywhere from $50 to $90 a day. I missed out on over $1000 of pay staying home.
I was already struggling before I got sick. Right when the crisis hit, Postmates got rid of their $3 minimum per order — already an astonishingly low rate for jobs that take up to half an hour. And in my area, they lowered our mileage pay from 69 cents to 64 cents a mile.
I’m still way behind on my bills from that lost pay.
I applied for food stamps, but I haven’t gotten those yet. I owe money on my electric bill and car insurance. If it wasn’t for the MVA being closed, my vehicle registration would be suspended.
Postmates is getting tons of extra business — they’re super busy, they’re ramping up their partnerships with restaurants like Chipotle, offering free delivery. And we’re putting ourselves at huge risk to do this work.
But in return, they’re lowering our pay. They aren’t providing PPE — I got two disposable throwaway masks I guess I’m supposed to reuse over and over again. And they’re making it look like they’re paying sick pay, but they aren’t.
Everything they do says we don’t care about you, you’re replaceable, we’ve got a hundred million people who will fill your spot. You’re nothing but a number to them. And that’s sad, because they wouldn’t have anything without us. We’re the ones who pick up the food, deliver it, serve as the face of their company.
Postmates says they have this relief fund, but they don’t. All they care about is the PR.
If they can make it look like they’re doing something good, it doesn’t matter what the truth is as long as people take them at their word. People need to know that no matter what the PR statements say, Postmates isn’t looking out for us.
We need sick leave that actually pays us. We need hazard pay. We need the PPE required to do our work.
And that’s why we’re taking action this Wednesday, April 29 through Friday, May 1. Join us.