A year into lockdowns spent delivering food to housebound Torontonians, Uber Eats courier Brice Sopher has never been clearer on the ironies of his job.
鈥淚鈥檓 seen as essential,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut at the same time, I鈥檓 seen as expendable.鈥
It鈥檚 a seminal, if sometimes unsettling time, for gig workers. As the pandemic exploits cracks in labour laws and income supports, it has also fuelled organizing efforts, protests 鈥 and now, public on the gig economy, currently underway on Parliament Hill.
But advocates also fear the momentum is prompting backlash, embodied by a push from Uber to reform provincial labour laws in a plan it calls 鈥淔lexible Work Plus.鈥
Critics have a different moniker for it: Prop 22 North. How to respond? That鈥檚 another matter.
The name refers to a controversial campaign launched by app companies south of the border. The most expensive ballot initiative in California history, Proposition 22 successfully secured exemptions for Uber, Lyft and others from a state law challenging the bedrock of the gig economy: classifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
For labour advocates, that classification is a critical flashpoint: as contractors, gig workers are excluded from a host of basic protections, including minimum wage and the right to unionize.
Now, Uber Canada says it has a plan: it will aim to improve labour standards by advocating for mandatory 鈥渘ew benefits and protections鈥 in the gig economy 鈥 while maintaining the contractor status the company says workers prefer.
The proposal centres around asking provincial governments to require the industry to provide 鈥渟elf-directed benefits鈥 that workers can withdraw in cash for prescriptions, retirement savings, or tuition. Uber says it also wants the province to make safety protections mandatory including 鈥渋ncluding the tools and training they need to stay safe on the job.鈥
鈥淲e are asking provincial governments to require the industry to ensure such additional protections are in place,鈥 a spokesperson said in a statement.
Economist Jim Stanford, a director of the Centre for Future Work, says there鈥檚 an easier fix for Uber: recognizing its fleet of couriers and drivers as employees. As courts in multiple jurisdictions, most recently the U.K., slap down the company鈥檚 independent contractor model, the 鈥渘et is closing in鈥 on digital platforms, he said.
鈥淭he company鈥檚 goal here is to forestall government actions that would make it clear that their drivers and delivery people are in fact employees,鈥 said Stanford of the Flexible Work Plus proposal.
鈥淭his is absolutely a political campaign, not a genuine effort to change the experience of their own workers.鈥
Uber has met three times with Ministry of Labour staff since January, including the minister on one occasion, a spokesperson for the ministry told the Star. 鈥淢inister (Monte) McNaughton has been following the impact of emerging technologies on the labour force closely and our office will have an update on this in the coming months.鈥
While labour laws are provincial jurisdiction, federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi says she has seen the tectonic plates shift in her own life 鈥 from her father, a longtime Hamilton steelworker, to her daughter, now doing gig work.
鈥淲e have to address these converging trends, we have to take a look at what is before us now, and what the future looks like. We owe that to our kids and our grandkids,鈥 she said in an interview with the Star.
鈥淲e are engaging in this because it is critical work that needs to be done.鈥
Tassi is now leading national consultations inviting public submissions on the future of gig work, as well as the right to disconnect. In feedback to date, Tassi says she鈥檚 heard from workers who value gig work as a low-barrier job that can be balanced with other pursuits.
鈥淭hose things are positive, the ability for someone who really wants a part-time gig to do this,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut my focus is going to be ensuring that the protections are there, as this work becomes more prominent and continues to grow.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have the right to unionize, you don鈥檛 have the standard labour protections 鈥 sick pay, for example. And you don鈥檛 have the occupational health and safety requirements.鈥
Stanford says it鈥檚 important to 鈥渦npack鈥 app companies鈥 鈥渆xaggerated claims about so-called flexibility.鈥
鈥淭hink about who these Uber drivers are. They are largely people who are excluded from the core segments of the labour market ... young people, new Canadians, racialized workers,鈥 he said.
鈥淪o these are people who are in general desperate for work. And so the idea that they can choose when and where to work is a bit shallow, when most of them are desperate for every dollar they can make.鈥
Uber says its Flexible Work Plus proposal is informed by two surveys sent to workers, and is 鈥渂ased on works best for them.鈥
鈥淲e arrived at this plan by listening to drivers and delivery people,鈥 a spokesperson said in a statement, going on to say that 74 per cent of them 鈥渄escribe their hours as part-time as they manage responsibilities like full-time employment, studies, parenting, caregiving, or entrepreneurship,鈥 a spokesperson said in a statement.
Some 81 per cent of surveyed drivers and delivery people reported preferring Uber鈥檚 new proposal over employment, the statement added.
The Star requested a copy of this survey and was provided with a 鈥減ress package鈥 which says 鈥渨orkers have a choice between flexibility (IC) or benefits (employment).鈥
Asked if they would rather be employees or independent contractors, 59 per cent chose the latter.
But Sopher sees Uber鈥檚 binary framing of the issue as misleading: In Norway, for example, gig workers with food-delivery app Foodora are unionized and classified as employees, but retain their flexible schedules.
Similarly, in ruling on Foodora couriers鈥 bid to join a union here, Ontario鈥檚 labour board noted that 鈥渋t is not uncommon for individuals to have multiple part-time jobs.鈥
鈥淭his does not deprive them of their employment status, nor does it suggest that they are economically independent,鈥 the decision reads.
Sopher, as a former Foodora courier, participated in the hearings leading up to that ruling. When the company declared bankruptcy shortly before the board ruled in its couriers鈥 favour, Sopher became vice-president of Gig Workers United 鈥 an gig-economy-wide organizing effort born out of the Foodsters campaign.
He calls Uber鈥檚 new proposal 鈥渄epressing.
鈥淚t does nothing to address the real issues that we鈥檙e facing,鈥 he said.
Those issues include changes to app companies鈥 pay structure that slash base fares, which couriers say have resulted in often drastically reduced wages. Uber says the changes are meant to provide greater 鈥渆arnings transparency鈥 and says the new structure reflects 鈥渆ach trip鈥檚 total time, effort, and distance.鈥
To Thorben Wieditz, cofounder of Toronto-based coalition RideFair, wage issues also reveal tech platforms鈥 ability to undercut public services 鈥 a ride-share service, for example, can provide cheap transportation by keeping labour costs low.
Compromising on these core issues lets app companies 鈥渃hange the rules to fit their precarious business models.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e dealing with these tech companies in different areas,鈥 he said. 鈥淔or them to announce that they would like to see changes in labour laws is extremely concerning, because as we鈥檝e seen in the U.S., once they succeed, you immediately have other employers jumping on board.鈥
Uber鈥檚 Flexible Work Plus proposal has also attracted sharp criticism from unions, including the United Food and Commercial Workers which, in a public statement, called it a 鈥渃ynical ploy to ignore labour rights.鈥 However, within the labour movement, rifts are emerging on how best to respond to challenges posed by the gig economy.
In an interview with the Star, Unifor president Jerry Dias said the union has had 鈥減reliminary discussions鈥 with app companies like Lyft, Doordash, and 鈥 to a lesser extent 鈥 Uber about how to potentially represent gig workers even without a recognition of employee status.
鈥淒o I believe that they鈥檙e employees? The answer is yes,鈥 said Dias.
But proving it in court is a protracted, contentious process, he said. 鈥淪o the question becomes, do you continue playing ... the legal argument and cross your fingers?鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檇 rather try to find a way to build on the concept of unionization.鈥
That鈥檚 a position that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which backed Foodora couriers鈥 efforts to challenge their independent-contractor designation and win the right to unionize, rejects.
鈥淲e reject all forms of unionism that don鈥檛 put the workers at the centre of struggle,鈥 said CUPW president Jan Simpson.
鈥淏ackroom deals with employers take away workers鈥 power and put it in the hands of bureaucrats and bosses, but real unions are not here to do the bosses鈥 dirty work. We are here to organize with workers for a better future.鈥
For Sopher, it鈥檚 鈥渆mployee or bust鈥 鈥 not least because he believes the battle sets a precedent for others in precarious jobs.
鈥淚f we compromise on what we fight for, then we don鈥檛 get to the level of equal rights to other workers and citizens.鈥
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