In a landmark ruling that could at last pave the way for Uber workers in Canada to be recognized as employees, the Supreme Court of Canada today dismissed an appeal from Uber Technologies Inc. to block a potential class action lawsuit launched by an Uber worker in 2017.
The case involved David Heller, a former Uber Eats driver who tried to launch a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the ride-sharing giant in order to get the company to recognize drivers as employees instead of independent contractors, and provide them with standard benefits, vacation pay and minimum wage according to the jurisdiction they worked in.
But Uber argued that the proposed class-action would have to undergo arbitration in the Netherlands, where the company is registered, effectively depriving Heller of his ability to utilize federal and provincial labour laws in Canada to bring forward his suit. In Friday’s decision, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Uber because it argued that there was a fundamental “inequality of bargaining power,” in Uber’s push to have the dispute mediated in the Netherlands.“Labour of employment disputes are not the type that the International Commercial Arbitration Act is intended to govern. The Ontario Arbitration Act therefore governs,” the judgement read.
“A win for Uber would have effectively ended employee rights in this country,” declared Lior Samfiru, Heller’s lawyer. “The Supreme Court of Canada was well aware of this issue and determined that a company operating in Canada must abide by Canadian laws and cannot eliminate employee rights by imposing the laws of a foreign jurisdiction.”
provincial and municipal jurisdiction.
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