Officials review WCB coverage for cabbies

After a Regina taxi driver was stabbed on the job, the province is reviewing how people driving cabs are insured and protected under provincial law.

Muhammad Umar was recently stabbed and robbed in the 2900 block of Parliament Avenue in south Regina. He and his wife have four children under the age of 10.

His brother, Wajid Ali, is lobbying the province to expand coverage made available to drivers in Umar’s situation because he says “there are a lot of loopholes” in current Workers Compensation Board (WCB) and SGI legislation.

Labour Minister Don Morgan said Tuesday WCB’s underlying principles are based on an employee-employer relationship. He admitted there are many different employment scenarios for taxi drivers.

Some are self-employed, some are employed by a company and others are essentially freelancers renting out taxi licences and vehicles.

In some of those cases, he said, “These are people who are regarded as selfemployed and as such have no coverage. They probably don’t know that they have no coverage.”

A self-employed taxi driver can have WCB coverage by paying $1.53 per $100 of their earnings and Morgan said the province wants to do an awareness campaign for drivers about that option.

“The people at WCB have been tasked with looking at what coverage is available, what should be available and what kind of recommendations they can make,” said Morgan.

In short, taxi drivers — many of whom are unionized — are trying to convince the province they should be covered by WCB in instances where they are injured at work, regardless of their employment status with the company.

NDP labour critic Nicole Rancourt said the province has to do a better job of ensuring all employees in the province are covered under workers’ compensation.

“It’s an obligation for the province to ensure that all workers are covered and if they’re injured in the workplace to have that coverage. If there are gaps in the policy, I think it’s the province’s responsibility to ensure those gaps are closed and that services are available,” she said.

Ali is also calling on the province to legislate safety shields in taxi cabs.

Morgan said that is not yet a discussion that has been had, “but it would be something WCB would look at as part of their review.”

He said the question of shields “comes up every time someone talks about driver safety” and that he was not sure if it was something taxi drivers would be open to or not.

Umar, who has been driving a cab for the past two years, was slashed in the throat and stabbed multiple times in his side and stomach.

Ali says his brother is doing “much better” and is out of the intensive care unit.