B.C. regulations for gig workers now in effect

British Columbia’s regulations meant to provide fairness, minimum-wage measures and basic protections for app-based ride-hailing and delivery workers have taken effect.

Under Bill 148, employers must pay these gig workers a minimum wage of $20.88 per hour for engaged time. That is 120% of B.C.’s general minimum wage, which currently stands at $17.40 per hour.

“Engaged time begins when a worker accepts an assignment through its completion. Engaged time does not include the time spent waiting between assignments. This is the rationale for adding a 20% premium,” said the B.C. government.

Also, the regulations establish an additional compensation standard to compensate workers for the costs they incur when using a personal vehicle for work, during engaged time: 

• $0.45 per-km for ride-hailing assignments.
• $0.35 per-km for delivery assignments, including for e-bikes or scooters.
• The rates are based on the estimated per-km cost of operating a vehicle in B.C.

The rates are higher for ride-hailing as law requires these workers to use vehicles no more than 10 years old, while delivery workers can use vehicles of any age, noted the provincial government.

The regulations also provide these gig workers protections in the areas of pay transparency, destination transparency, suspensions and terminations and workers’ compensation coverage.

“All companies should be providing basic fairness like minimum wage for their workers,” said Harry Bains, minister of labour, back in June. “Everyone working hard to support their families should have basic protections so if they’re injured on the job, they won’t lose their homes. That is what we are doing with these regulations – providing fair pay and basic protections for these workers.”

The regulations apply to those who work for apps such as Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, SkiptheDishes, DoorDash and others. In B.C., there are about 46,000 gig workers, according to Global News.

Conflicting views on regulations for gig workers

DoorDash delivery rider Gugu Bangar, welcomed the rules around the higher pay for gig workers. 

“That’s a lot of money. If you’re going to and count it at the end of the week, it’s going to be $400-$500,” he told CBC.

But the benefits that gig workers get from the new regulations are not enough, said Brice Sopher, vice president of Gig Workers United.

“It does sound good on paper,” he told Global News, however, these gig workers should be paid for all the hours they work.

“You'll notice that this bill talks about engaged time. So that's the time that workers have food or the person that they're transporting in their vehicle or on them. With this law, they're still not being paid for that time that can take up to 40 to 60% of the time they work… So, they still won't be hitting minimum wage as it exists right now in B.C.”

The provincial government should also give more than just cash to these workers, he said.

“The bill does do something really, really awesome in that it includes workers under workers’ compensation. And that's been a big gap for workers right now. Up until this law comes into place, these new regulations, they would be injured, and they would find themselves in a really difficult spot with very little support. 

“But it still doesn't go far enough in including workers in [employment insurance], in ensuring that they get [paid] vacation [days]. They find themselves still cut out of these very basic protections that a lot of workers benefit from.”

In the fourth quarter of 2022, 2.4 million Canadians had done a form of gig work in the previous 12 months, according to a previous Statistics Canada (StatCan) report.

Uber is adding a $2 fee on all deliveries in the province, according to the report. 

Also, DoorDash said: “Unfortunately, these and other new BC regulations will significantly increase the costs of facilitating delivery across B.C.”

Around nine million Canadians say they are part of the gig economy, equivalent to 28% of the country’s population, according to a previous report.