Nearly everyone has used a rideshare app to get where they need to go or a food delivery app to get something delivered. Few of us ever consider the work arrangement of the person delivering us or our food to the destination. Effective July 1, 2025, anyone who is curious about the concept will be able to see for themselves in the Digital Platform Workers Rights Act.
The Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act (the “Act”) was enacted in April 2022 with the passage of the Working for Workers Four Act. This Act did not immediately come into effect as the Government of Ontario spent some time consulting with the public and stakeholders about the Act before preparing the associated regulation. With consultation now complete, the Act and an associated Regulation have a date of July 1, 2025 to come into force.
What Does the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act Cover?
The term “digital platforms” in the Act refers to the various gig type services like Uber or DoorDash. The Act defines the services under these platforms as: “the provision of for payment ride share, delivery, courier or other prescribed services by workers who are offered work assignments by an operator through the use of a digital platform”. Essentially, if you order food or a ride through a delivery app, you are using one of these digital platforms.
Why is the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act Necessary?
The terms of the various digital platforms set out that the people providing services under these platforms are not employees of the respective companies. As such, until the passage of this Act, these individuals had no rights under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”) or at common law. A class action against Uber (Uber Technologies Inc. v Heller) addressing whether an individual providing services through a digital platform is an employee continues to wind its way through the court system.
In the absence of this coverage and a decision in Uber, the people who work under these digital platforms have only the rights that the company provides them with, and they have no legal or statutory recourse. The Act provides these individuals with some of the similar entitlements and protections that an employee enjoys under the ESA.
What Does the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act Provide?
The Act sets up baseline rights for gig workers which did not exist before.
Like the ESA, the Act includes a provision which prevents contracting out unless a greater right or benefit is being provided above the rights in the Act. The Act also establishes a minimum wage for individuals it covers. However, unlike the ESA, the minimum wage applies only to the time an individual spends on each work assignment as defined in the Act, and does not apply for times between these work assignments. This means that the worker does not earn anything while awaiting their next task, fare, or delivery. This is different from the ESA, where most employees are entitled to pay for all time where they are at work, irrespective of whether they are carrying out their duties or not the whole time.
The Act also prevents a digital platform from making unauthorized deductions from a workers’ earnings under the platform, and requires the digital platform to set up a recurring pay period for workers.
The Act sets out the basic information that the digital platform must provide a worker within 24 hours of becoming active on the digital platform as well as the information that the platform must provide for each new work assignment and upon completion of each work assignment. This information includes how the worker’s compensation is calculated, the pay periods, and where there is a performance rating system, how this system operates.
Instead of the ESA’s requirements for terminating the employment of an employee, the Act sets out the terms for ending a workers’ access to the digital platform. The Act requires that the digital platform provide a worker with two weeks’ notice of its intention to remove an individual’s access to the platform for more than 24 hours. This notice must be accompanied by a reason, in writing, for why the worker’s access to the platform was cut off. There is an exception to this requirement for when the worker’s access was cut off for the worker’s wilful misconduct. Wilful misconduct is not defined in the Act but instead in the Regulation, where it is defined as “wilful misconduct that is not trivial and has not been condoned.”
Conclusion
Because the Act has not yet come into force, none of it has been tested in court or before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. As such, the meaning of the various parts of the Act have not been fully realized and there may be disputes about the interpretation of the Act and the Regulations.
The ultimate holding in Uber Technologies Inc. v Heller may be that gig workers are employees of the respective digital platforms, rendering this Act moot. For the time being, however, this is a step towards providing more individuals with rights.
We assist both employers and employees in all aspects of the employment relationship, and would be happy to assist you whether you are an employee whose employment has been terminated, or an employer contemplating dismissing an employee. If you are an employer who is unclear if your business is covered by the Act, feel free to contact us for advice tailored to your situation.
