TORONTO, Feb. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The UK supreme court docket handed down its determination on Friday that guidelines Uber drivers are staff and never self-employed as the corporate has tried to argue for years earlier than decrease courts.
“The choice reached by the UK supreme court docket is the suitable one and jurisdictions around the globe have to take discover,” says Paul Meinema, UFCW Canada Nationwide President. “Gig employees are stored stranded from the rights and protections they deserve as staff, as laws fails to maintain tempo with a quickly altering employment panorama. This wants to alter.”
The choice of the UK supreme court docket ought to set the precedent for worldwide norms because it applies to the gig-economy. For many years, platform employers have been utilizing expertise to undermine employees’ rights to truthful and first rate employment. This implies entry to minimal requirements and statutory advantages like pension and EI, however most significantly the suitable to hitch a union.
“The premise for the ruling within the UK is similar situation earlier than the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) right this moment,” says Pablo Godoy, UFCW Canada Nationwide Coordinator of Gig and Platform Initiatives. “We keep drivers are usually not self-employed however are certainly staff of Uber and as such ought to have the suitable to unionize.”
Since launching the Uber Drivers United (www.ufcw.ca/uber) marketing campaign in 2019, UFCW has change into the main voice for trip hailing drivers in Canada, signing up a whole lot of Uber Black drivers in Toronto and spearheading organizing efforts in British Columbia, in addition to different components of the nation. To be taught extra in regards to the marketing campaign to convey justice and equity to Uber and different trip hailing drivers, visit UFCW’s Uber Drivers United website (www.ufcw.ca/uber).
About UFCW Canada
UFCW Canada is the nation’s main non-public sector union, representing greater than 250,000 union members throughout Canada working in meals retail and processing, transportation, well being care, logistics, warehousing, agriculture, hospitality, manufacturing, and the safety {and professional} sectors. UFCW is the nation’s most modern group devoted to constructing equity in workplaces and communities. UFCW Canada members are your neighbours who work at your native grocery shops, accommodations, airport meals courts, taxi companies, automotive rental businesses, nursing houses, eating places, meals processing vegetation, and hundreds of different places throughout the nation. To seek out out extra about UFCW and its ground-breaking work, go to www.ufcw.ca.
Contact Data
Pablo Godoy
Nationwide Coordinator of Gig and Platform-Employer Initiatives
UFCW Canada
403-542-2366
pablo.godoy@ufcw.ca
www.ufcw.ca/uber
