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Special thanks to our articling student Andie Hoang for contributing to this update.

In 2022, the Ontario government sought to establish a new legal framework for “digital platform work” through the introduction of the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022. It is now set to come into force on July 1, 2025. The Act, stemming from the Working for Workers Act, 2022, introduces new rights and protections for workers within the gig-economy. Specifically, the Act will apply to workers who perform “digital platform work” (such as ride share, delivery, or courier services) and “operators” who facilitate the performance of digital platform work through a digital platform.

Summary of Significant Changes

In conjunction with the Act, the Government of Ontario has recently published regulations that further clarifies the new rights and obligations under the Act. Key worker rights and new obligations include:

  • Right to a Minimum Wage: Digital platform operations will be required to pay a worker at least the minimum wage rate payable under the Employment Standard Act, 2000 (ESA), exclusive of tips and other gratuities, for each “work assignment” performed. Subject to specific exceptions, a “work assignment” will typically begin when a worker accepts a work assignment through a digital platform and ends when the worker performs the assignment.
  • Right to Amounts Earned: Unless otherwise authorized under the Act, a digital platform operator will be prohibited from withholding, deducting, or causing a worker to return amounts earned by the worker or the worker’s tips or other gratuities.
  • Right to Recurring Pay Period and Pay Day: Digital platform workers will now be entitled to a recurring pay period and pay day. The effect of this is that all amounts earned by the worker during a given pay period, inclusive of tips and any other gratuities, must be paid in full no later than the specified pay day for that pay period.
  • Right to Information: Digital platform workers will now be entitled to certain information at specific times during the worker-operator relationship. For example, within 24 hours of a worker being given access to the digital platform, the worker must be provided with the following in writing:
    • Description of how pay is calculated;
    • Whether tip or other gratuities are collected and if they are when and how;
    • The applicable recurring pay period and pay day;
    • Details on any factors that may be used to determine how work assignments are offered and how such factors are applied;
    • Whether the platform uses an employee performance rating system and any potential consequences based on the worker’s rating and work performance; and
    • Details regarding factors used to evaluate the worker’s performance and related consequences.

The Act and Regulations also provide certain timelines for when specific information must be provided to the worker. These instances include when the operator offers a work assignment, within 24 hours of completion of a work assignment, and upon removal of a worker’s access to the operator’s digital platform.

  • Ontario-Based Dispute Resolution: A worker and an operator must resolve all digital platform work-related disputes between them in Ontario.
  • Reprisal Protection: Similar to the ESA, workers are entitled to protection from intimidating, penalizing, or otherwise retaliatory actions by operators for exercising their rights under the Act.
  • No Contracting Out: Similar to the ESA, parties cannot contract out of the Act’s minimum requirements.

Takeaways for Employers

Given the Act’s novelty and the significant impact it will have, it is vital that any entity that is an “operator” under the Act ensures they are ready to comply with the new obligations as of July 1, 2025.

The Government of Ontario will enforce the Act and Regulation by appointing compliance officers. These officers will have powers and duties similar to those of an employment standards officer under the ESA, such as investigation and inspection powers. The complaints process will be similar to what is available under the ESA.

The Act will be limited to a specific range of Ontario-based organizations who facilitate digital platform work. However, the Act will not apply to employers generally if they do not operate or offer such services. For example, the Regulations clarify that taxicab or limousine services do not constitute “digital platform work” for the purposes of the Act.

Ultimately, this Act will apply to any worker who performs digital platform work, regardless of whether they are employees at law. The Act will apply to contractors as well.

Regulation of the gig economy has become a hot topic of debate across the world’s major economies. As the Digital Platform Worker’s Rights Act comes into force, Ontario joins a number of jurisdictions, in Canada and abroad, who have introduced some form of legislation to enhance the working conditions of platform workers including British Columbia, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain.

Please contact a member of our team with any questions.