Steve MacLellan

Gig work leaves many people lonely, powerless and underpaid. Its current business model is built on stripping workers of basic rights. And more and more us face lives in precarious work, our futures determined by algorithms.

So what’s being done to restore balance to a system that’s now overwhelmingly weighted to favour the interests of employers?

In Canada, not much.

The gig economy companies — Uber, Lyft, Skip the Dishes and a host of clones — exploit weaknesses in employment laws developed half a century ago. Their main argument is that the people who work for them are not their employees, but independent contractors, and thus not entitled to protection under employment standards laws, minimum wage regulations or labour codes. Their lawyers craft coercive agreements designed to make resistance futile.

Canadian governments, including the BC NDP government, have chosen to ignore the attack on workers’ rights and resulting increase in inequality.