blog
Misclassification: The Underlying Danger within Gig Work
By Victor Hua, Knowledge Mobilization and Social Action Assistant (Placement student)
In an ideal world, a job should provide a stable source of income that allows us to live life comfortably. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for many people, especially when it comes to the marginalized urban newcomer populations Access Alliance serves. Facing barriers to the standard Canadian job market, many newcomers turn to gig work to make ends meet. And with the dramatic rise of gig work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these workers put their health and safety on the line in order to provide for themselves and their loved ones.
But what is gig work exactly? And what is its impact on our newcomer communities?
What Is Gig Work?
Although the definition varies, gig work is traditionally considered self-employment or freelance work (as described on this Gigworker website). Gig workers are those who are in charge of their own business and work output and can often be considered to be self-employed. Gig work is also typically characterized as non-permanent, or based on short-term contracts. According to an N26 article, a gig worker is someone who is hired to complete a specific task or project. While the term was originally coined in 1915 by jazz musicians to refer to their individual performances, today the term ‘gig’ refers to the contained one-off nature of a task or assignment.
In recent years, there has been a boom of a specific type of gig work – that based on platform apps (such as Uber, Lyft and SkipTheDishes) as is outlined in a shiftpixy article. This boom can be attributed to advances in technology, social changes, and perhaps most importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to most of the workforce having to quarantine at home, gig workers played a vital role in navigating the pandemic by maintaining essential services. Delivery drivers were especially important as they brought essentials to those who could not get them themselves. This type of gig work is characterized as having minimum requirements for hiring (‘low barrier’). Going forward, we will focus on this specific type of gig work as this is what most affects newcomer communities.
Why Choose Gig Work?
We spoke with Abel Kassa, a client of Access Alliance. Abel is from Ethiopia where he owned his own business before coming to live in Canada. Abel has driven for Uber for the past few years, and we asked him about his experiences with this type of work.
“When I was doing Uber, I had a lot of time because you don’t have any supervisor, this is your own job, you have to work your own schedule. When you are free you have time to do Uber.”
Abel touches on a sentiment that is a common draw for many gig workers: flexibility within one’s schedule. Oftentimes when working a gig, there are no minimum or scheduled requirements, allowing a worker to set their own hours. An example of this is how Uber drivers are able to pick up passengers whenever they have free time set aside, or how SkipTheDishes workers can pick up and deliver food in their downtime. As mentioned previously, gig work is also generally low entry or low barrier – this allows more people to enter the workforce, in particular those who may face barriers such as the non-recognition of international credentials and experience. For these reasons, gig work can be more accessible for many newcomers who are looking for work.
Moreover, as someone whose previous job was a machine operator in the metal industry, Abel’s switch to working for Uber was a welcome one. Abel mentioned that the work he had done as a machine operator was hard and put a lot of stress on his body. When he switched to working for Uber, the work became much less strenuous. Additionally, he had no supervisor to answer to. Despite all of this, Abel will not consider staying with Uber in the long term because he doesn’t earn enough money to meet his family’s living expenses. He mentioned that he felt as though he was “fighting with Uber” whenever it came to finances. His financial responsibilities also included sending money back to his home country to support family. Moreover, he faced regular abuse from passengers and doesn’t feel that Uber “stands up (for) drivers” as the company typically takes the word of the customer over the driver. And because companies such as Uber can easily replace workers, there is little incentive for platform app company management teams to resolve these issues.
The Danger of Misclassification
This brings us to the core issue of gig work – its classification, or more specifically, its misclassification. Oftentimes, platform app employers will purposefully classify gig workers as independent contractors and self-employers, although they may be working full-time regular hours. This ‘non-standard’ work classification means that workers are much less likely to be offered benefits or pensions by their employers. Furthermore, the role of an independent contractor is not covered by the Employment Standards Act (ESA), Ontario legislation that is meant to offer certain standard protections to employees such as hours of work limits and rules for termination. This all allows for a legislative loophole that has led to employers purposefully misclassifying their gig workers.
This misclassification can be dangerous as there is often no on-the-job training and little information regarding the full scope of the job, which can lead to harm both bodily and emotionally. In the NCCDH podcast, Mind the Disruption, Jennifer Scott speaks about her experience starting out as a food delivery person by bike. She had trouble falling asleep due to the physically demanding impact that the work had on her body. On top of that, she would over-strain her body because she didn’t know how to bike in a way that was effective or safe for food delivery.
This danger on the job is a violation of Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically “the right to just and favourable conditions of work”. Additional to this, the Employment Standards Act states that “employers are prohibited from misclassifying employees as independent contractors, interns, volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA.” And yet, despite the legal implications, gig workers continue to be misclassified which is not only dangerous for their health, but it also allows for employers to mistreat employees by means of not providing the minimum wage for workers, paid sick leave, on-the-job training, or payments towards the Canadian Pension Plan or Employment Insurance.
The Portable Benefits Program
The health and safety risks facing gig workers on a daily basis are a very real concern for many workers and workers’ rights groups such as Workers’ Action Centre. The Ontario government has acknowledged this concern and has proposed an initiative for a Portable Benefits Program.
This proposed Program is an attempt to mitigate the risks gig workers face in their day-to-day lives. Gig workers often do not get benefit coverage and the Portable Benefits Program is an attempt to rectify that. Workers would have to pay a fee, currently unspecified, in order to access a number of benefits coverage including but not limited to telemedicine services, professional wellness services, prescription drugs, eye exams and prescription glasses, and dental services. This plan could then travel with workers from job to job.
When speaking with Abel, he mentioned that Uber did not have any benefits coverage for its workers despite the company taking money out of their pay for tax reasons. Abel felt that if Uber was taking money out of his pay per rider, then the minimum they could do was to provide some sort of benefits plan for their workers as well.
“If I am sick, I have to go to doctor and receive prescription to buy medicine. I am not getting it free. At least when I buy this drug and it cost 14 dollars, at least Uber pay two dollars to support their drivers. Because we are working for them.”
Although the Portable Benefits Program is a proposed response to gig workers’ concerns, many gig workers feel that it is not a proper solution as it only addresses one issue that gig workers face (lack of benefits), and does not actually address the core issue of misclassification. Since employers save money by not offering benefits, the Portable Benefits Program may even incentivize employers to continue misclassifying workers as a continued widespread practice, despite being illegal. The issues and dangers that gig workers face day to day will not be truly resolved until the core issue of misclassification is addressed. Other solutions need to be implemented alongside this Portable Benefits Program, such as legislation that will hold employers accountable for their ongoing misclassification of workers, as well as providing extended health care and OHIP for all.
Since we last spoke, Abel has decided to leave his job at Uber and is working towards a career within peer support work, as he feels that would offer him better protection under labour laws as well as better quality of life. The Ontario government is currently doing consultations on the Portable Benefits Plan, which is a good opportunity for organizations, Access Alliance included, to advocate on behalf of their newcomer and gig worker clients. The Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change Steering Community, of which Access Alliance is a part, has contributed a joint submission on this consultation. We will wait to see how the Ontario government will move forward with their support for gig workers.