Uber drivers and gig economy workers pressure Ontario government for employee status

People in Ontario who drive or deliver for apps such as Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes are calling on Premier Doug Ford's government to grant them basic workers' rights by classifying them as employees.

It's an issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of people who work in the province's gig economy, and could have implications for all workers across Ontario and in other provinces.

The app companies are profiting from having a workforce at the ready, yet don't provide those workers the rights and benefits of employees, says Brice Sopher, who delivers for Uber Eats and serves as vice-president of the union-backed group Gig Workers United.  

Since app-based workers are currently classified as independent contractors under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, they are not entitled to minimum wage, vacation days or statutory holiday pay. The companies they work for do not have to pay Employment Insurance premiums or Canada Pension Plan contributions.

"There is no reason why we don't deserve full employment rights," said Sopher. "Anything less than that is a lowering of the bar for all workers."  

Even those whose jobs are outside the gig economy should still be concerned about the issue, says Sopher. He says if Ontario does not classify app-based workers as employees, companies will have an incentive to convert their existing employees to gig workers, stripping them of employment rights.

While Ontario's Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton is promising legislation to protect and support vulnerable workers by the end of the month, he is not promising to classify app workers as employees.

Uber Canada would not grant Uber drivers the status of employees with the right to minimum wage and holiday pay, but would provide a cash-based benefit fund that the workers could dip into for any reason, whether a paid day off or to cover the cost of medications.

The question of whether app-based workers should be classed as employees is at issue in a $400-million class-action lawsuit against Uber Canada on behalf of its Ontario drivers. 

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has led attempts at unionizing app-based workers. The delivery company Foodora ceased its operations in Canada in the spring of 2020 in the wake of one such unionization drive. 

Failing to classify gig workers as employees "is creating two classes of workers right now within our society, and we do not want that," said CUPW president Jan Simpson. 

"If the Ford government truly wanted to to support workers in a just economic recovery, they must get rid of the misclassification," Simpson said in an interview. 

It's unclear how many people in Ontario work for the app-based companies, but it definitely numbers in the tens of thousands and there's some evidence it could exceed 100,000.

 Written by
Fred Alvarado

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre