Knock-LA is reporting that Albertsons Companies — which owns the California grocery chains Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, and others — will be dismissing its entire in-house grocery delivery employees and outsourcing that work to third-party delivery services (e.g. DoorDash), in order to, “create a more efficient operation.” Dismissals are currently scheduled to begin in late February.
This move is seen as a direct consequence of Proposition 22 — ratified by California voters in November 2020 after a record-breaking $200 million ad campaign chiefly funded by Uber and Lyft — which forces app-based drivers into the classification of independent contractors, stripping them of rights, protections, and benefits afforded to full-time employees, regardless of how many hours they work. The measure also carries an unprecedented provision requiring a 7/8th super-majority vote in the legislature to modify its provisions.
The only Albertsons delivery employees currently unaffected by this move are drivers in the San Francisco bay area, who are unionized.