After six years, a pandemic and increased public reliance on online food delivery services, a former Winnipeg courier’s labour standards lawsuit is nearing its final destination.
It will be up to a Manitoba Court of King’s Bench judge to decide whether the legal action started by Charleen Pokornik in 2018 should be officially launched as a class-action lawsuit involving SkipTheDishes couriers across Canada.
A hearing date hasn’t yet been set in front of Justice Gerald Chartier for the certification motion, but Paul Edwards, lawyer for the plaintiff, said he is trying to get a court date as soon as possible.
“It’s been many years to deal with this, so we really want to move this forward quickly,” Edwards said Tuesday. “It hasn’t been for lack of trying to move this forward, but it’s just taken a long time.”
If the court’s answer is yes, only then will the merits of the case be heard in court.
At issue is whether SkipTheDishes delivery drivers in the eight provinces it operates in are employees of the online food delivery service or whether they are independent contractors not entitled to employee benefits.
SkipTheDishes didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday.
Edwards and his team ultimately want SkipTheDishes drivers to be retroactively compensated for at least minimum wage, vacation pay, statutory holiday work and overtime, which they’d be entitled to under the employment standards code if they were considered employees.
SkipTheDishes considers them independent contractors who set their own schedules, so couriers don’t collect an hourly wage. They pocket the delivery fee from an order, plus any tips.
Basic employment protections for so-called gig workers, including Uber drivers and SkipTheDishes couriers, are now in effect in B.C.
That province’s new employment standards legislation came into effect Sept. 3, setting a minimum wage for gig workers, mandating mileage compensation and making the workers eligible for other basic employment standards they’ve never been eligible to receive before.
B.C.’s legislation is the first in Canada, but Edwards said he predicts other provinces will soon follow. He said it signals a growing public understanding Canadians doing gig work need to be paid fairly and governments need to step in.
“It doesn’t in any way eliminate the importance of our case. It does change the future,” the lawyer said. “I think it’s a good thing that governments are recognizing they need to do something, and B.C. has acted.”
Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada decided it will not hear an appeal from SkipTheDishes on the Winnipeg-headquartered company’s bid to get the lawsuit thrown out.
The stay motion was rejected by the Manitoba Court of Appeal in January.
Edwards said he didn’t want to comment on recent layoffs in SkipTheDishes’ corporate workforce in Canada and beyond, nor on what being held to employment code standards might mean for the future of companies that rely on gig workers.
“Our focus, and we’re pursuing full speed ahead, is on the hundreds of thousands of Canadians involved in this economy, and making sure that they’re properly compensated.”
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
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