Ontario introduces general minimum wage for digital delivery workers

Toronto — Ontario is introducing the Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Working for Workers Act 2), which would make it the first province to establish a minimum wage and other rights for digital platform workers who offer rides or deliver food and other items for companies such as Uber, Door Dash and Instacart.

The government’s proposals would enshrine the following rights and protections for digital platform workers:

• earning at least the general minimum wage for time worked
• the right to keep their tips along with regular pay periods
• the right to information and clarity around algorithms including:
  how pay is calculated; and how and why a worker might be penalized in the allocation of work
• written notice if they are being removed from the platform and why
• the right to resolve their work-related disputes in Ontario; and
• protection from reprisal should they seek to assert their rights

The province recently announced it is designing a health-care-benefits plan tied to millions of workers who currently don’t have access to them, including digital platform workers.

Also included in Working for Workers 2 is a requirement for employers to disclose their electronic monitoring of employees and several red tape reductions to encourage out-of-province workers to help fill the generational labour shortage.