{"id":91421,"date":"2021-03-24T11:33:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T11:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/03\/uber-flexible-work-plus-canada-labor-law-workers-rights\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T11:37:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T11:37:30","slug":"ubers-flexible-work-campaign-is-a-scam-to-evade-canadas-labor-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/24\/ubers-flexible-work-campaign-is-a-scam-to-evade-canadas-labor-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber\u2019s Flexible Work+ Campaign Is a Scam to Evade Canada\u2019s Labor Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Beneath the shiny rhetoric, Uber\u2019s Flexible Work+ program is just another bid by the company to deny its employees their legal rights, like California's Prop 22. For all its riches, however, Uber is vulnerable to a challenge from workers who know what they\u2019re due.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Uber\u2019s Flexible Work+ campaign in Canada represents the company\u2019s latest salvo in its ongoing international fight against labor rights. (Robert Anasch \/ Unsplash)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Uber Canada is now pressing for Canada\u2019s provinces to enshrine its \u201cFlexible Work+\u201d program into law. This is another typical Uber scheme to prevent its workers from accessing basic protections like a minimum wage and union rights.<\/p>\n

Gig workers across Canada made up 8.2 percent<\/a> of the workforce in the most recently available data. They had an especially rough 2020<\/a>, living through what has been called \u201cthe most asymmetrical recession<\/a> in Canadian history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some UberEATS couriers were stuck earning as little as $3.99 per trip<\/a> by the start of this year \u2014 down from about $10 per trip at the beginning of 2020 \u2014 after the company lowered base compensation rates. Since most couriers averaged only two or three trips per hour, that put them significantly below Ontario\u2019s minimum wage of $14 an hour.<\/p>\n

The Flexible Work+ campaign comes at a critical time for the company, which has recently experienced both victories and defeats in other jurisdictions. Uber\u2019s campaign in Canada represents the company\u2019s latest salvo in its ongoing international fight<\/a> against labor rights.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

A Flexible Con-Trick<\/h2>\n \n

On March 10, the company invited a select group of Uber workers to join a zoom call<\/a> with Uber Senior \u201crides and platform\u201d VP Andrew Macdonald. While these workers spoke positively about the company, many expressed frustrations with Uber\u2019s lack of life insurance, job security, reliable tips, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for keeping our cities moving. I really do think a lot of you should take a lot of pride in the work you are doing,\u201d Macdonald told the workers. He concluded:<\/p>\n

Thank you very much for telling me a little bit about your families or your personal situations. It is a very hard time for the world right now and I know we all feel a little bit of loneliness and a little disconnect so for me I know it\u2019s made my day to be able to spend the hour with you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the zoom call wasn\u2019t just a feel-good listening session. It was also meant to launch Uber Technologies, Inc.\u2019s proposed override of Canada\u2019s labor laws.<\/p>\n

The present laws, Macdonald claims, are \u201care outdated, unfair and somewhat inflexible.\u201d Uber\u2019s proposal, the euphemistic \u201cFlexible Work+,\u201d seeks to make exceptions for app-based work, but not in ways that will help app-based workers:<\/p>\n

One of the conversations we\u2019re starting to have with the provincial governments in Canada is \u2014 how do we protect and lock-in the flexibility and power that I\u2019m hearing many of you describe and also provide those things that make that the standard for flexible work?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Currently, Uber workers in Canada are classified as independent contractors<\/a> \u2014 meaning they decide when to work and what work to do. However, this \u201cflexibility\u201d comes with enormous costs. In Ontario, for example, these contractors have no legal right to a minimum wage, sick days, collective bargaining rights, or breaks.<\/p>\n