In February 2020, the Ontario Labour Relations Board issued an important decision finding that gig workers engaged by the food delivery company Foodora are “dependent contractors” and therefore “employees” under the Labour Relations Act.
Last week, Professor David Doorey interviewed Ryan White from the law firm Cavalluzzo, who successfully argued the case on behalf of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The interview was for a session in Prof Doorey’s course, “Contemporary Issues in Labour Law”, in the Osgoode Hall Law School specialist LLM program in Labour and Employment Law.
The discussion spans a range of topics relating to the preparation and legal strategy in the case, the challenges the union faced in organizing gig workers and meeting the Wagner Model tests for majority status when it is so difficult to locate workers and estimate the number of employees in the bargaining unit, the OLRB’s decision and how it relates to earlier “dependent contractor” decisions, the fall out from the Foodora decision to close after the union won the vote, and the challenges unions representing gig workers will encounter in bargaining and servicing gig worker bargaining units.
Here is the video:
For more on the Foodora decision, see these previous posts on Canadian Law of Work Forum:
R. White & A. Philpott, “How the Ontario Labour Board Ruled Foodora Workers are ‘Employees’ and Not Independent Contractors”, Canadian Law of Work Forum (March 5 2020)
David Doorey, “Thoughts on the Foodora Fiasco: Have Labour Laws Been Violated?” Canadian Law of Work Forum (April 28 2020)
Josh Mandryk, “Foodora Canada Saga Highlights the Failure of Canada’s Workplace Protection Regimes”, Canadian Law of Work Forum (May 1 2020)
David Doorey, “CUPW Alleges that #Foodora Acted Unlawfully by Pulling Out of Canada. Here’s the Complaint” Canadian Law of Work Forum (May 12 2020)
Bethany Hastie, “What CUPW v Foodora Reveals for the Future Litigation in Uber v Heller” Canadian Law of Work Forum (July 6 2020)