VICTORIA – BC has introduced a new legislation to bring in better working conditions and extend minimum employment standards for app-based ride-hailing and food-delivery gig workers.
The changes address the priority concerns workers have raised such as low and unpredictable wages, being cut off from the job without warning and a lack of workers’ compensation coverage if injured on the job.
Amendments will be made to the Employment Standards Act (ESA) and the Workers Compensation Act (WCA) to define online platform workers and to ensure that ride-hail and food-delivery workers will be considered employees, specifically for the purposes of the ESA and WCA.
App-based food-delivery workers include those who deliver food or other goods through an app that matches customer orders with a delivery courier. Government estimates there are currently approximately 11,000 ride-hailing drivers and 27,000 food-delivery workers in B.C.
These proposed legislative amendments do not require formal employment relationships between app-based workers and the platform companies. Instead, the amendments outline that these workers will be considered employees for the purposes of Employment Standards Act and Workers Compensation Act, whether they are employees or independent contractors.
A set of employment standards will be established to bring fairness and predictability to these types of jobs through new regulations that can be reviewed over time and improved if needed.
“Last week, I announced several proposed solutions that respond to the needs of the workers who deliver our meals and drive us where we need to go,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour. “Today, I am tabling a bill in the house to establish the legislative authority for those protections so that the regulations can be developed as quickly as possible.”
“This is the first and a very crucial step towards recognizing us as hard-working individuals. We can look forward to receiving a fair resolution process, pay that reflects our hard work and basic rights and benefits like any contributing member of society,” said Inder Raj Gill, a ride-hailing driver in Vancouver.
The new standards and protections will come into effect after the legislation is passed and new regulations are developed, and once companies have had time to update their technology to implement the new requirements.
