In landmark ruling, top court rules in favour of Uber driver
In a landmark ruling Friday that could finally pave the way for Uber Technologies Inc. workers in Canada to be recognized as employees, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal from the ride-sharing firm to block a potential class action lawsuit launched by a worker back in 2017.
The case involved David Heller, a former Uber Eats driver who tried to launch a $400-million class-action lawsuit against the ride-sharing giant in order to get the company to recognize drivers as employees instead of independent contractors, and provide them with standard benefits, vacation pay and minimum wage according to the jurisdiction they worked in.
But Uber argued that the proposed class-action would have to be arbitrated in the Netherlands, where the company is registered, effectively depriving Heller of relief under Canadian federal and provincial labour laws.
In Friday’s decision, the Supreme
Court ultimately ruled against Uber because it argued that there was a fundamental “inequality of bargaining power” in Uber’s push to have the dispute mediated in the Netherlands.
The process would have cost Heller approximately $20,000.
“Labour and employment disputes are not the type that the International Commercial Arbitration Act is intended to govern. The Ontario Arbitration Act therefore governs,” the judgment read.
A win for Uber would have effectively ended employee rights in this country,” declared Lior Samfiru, Heller’s lawyer. “The Supreme Court of Canada was well aware of this issue and determined that a company operating in Canada must abide by Canadian laws and cannot eliminate employee rights by imposing the laws of a foreign jurisdiction.”
According to Samfiru, Uber admitted during the course of the case that they had chosen the Netherlands because it was “convenient” for them. “An interesting fact is of the 10,000 workers Uber has, not a single person has ever fought an arbitration in the Netherlands,” Samfiru added.