B.C. wants to hear from ‘gig workers’ as it reviews employment standards

The B.C. government wants to hear from “gig economy” workers as it reviews employment standards for people working through app-based platforms like Uber or SkipTheDishes.

Officials held roundtable forums in the Interior last week and will hold them on Vancouver Island this week before moving on to the North and Lower Mainland in the next two weeks.

“The classification of workers has become a challenge for new types of work arrangements,” the province said on its website for the consultations.

“While some gig workers may be truly be independent contractors, and not covered by the Employment Standards Act, others are wrongly classified and wrongly denied minimum employment standards.”

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The Employment Standards Act covers a variety of basic worker rights and protections, including minimum wage, overtime pay, statutory holidays and vacation.

Feedback collected in the forums will be looked at in proposing employment standards for app-based ride-hail and delivery workers, the province says, as a part of a provincewide “precarious work strategy.”

Future work will look at both benefits and feasibility of pension plans for workers who don’t otherwise have coverage.

This month’s consultations will be worker-only, and participation is confidential.

Gig workers who want to participate can find the dates, times and locations of upcoming roundtables and registration information online.