On April 11, 2022, Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Bill 88), received Royal Assent and became law. Among other things, Bill 88 enacted the new Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022 (DPWRA).1 The DWPRA did not come into force upon its enactment.
On September 5, 2024, however, the Ontario government proclaimed that the DPWRA will come into force on July 1, 2025. The Ontario Government also filed O Reg 344/24 under the DPWRA (Regulation), which contains further rules and obligations, and will also come into force on July 1, 2025.
Unlike the amendments to British Columbia’s Employment Standards Act respecting online platform workers, which came into force on September 3, 2024 (discussed here), the DPWRA does not deem gig workers “employees.” Instead, it sets out specific obligations similar in nature to some traditional employment obligations. There is also no equivalent to the British Columbia amendments that explicitly extended workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety rights and obligations to gig workers.
The DPWRA establishes rights for gig workers who perform “digital platform work” (i.e., “provision of for payment ride share, delivery, courier or other prescribed services by workers who are offered work assignments by an operator through the use of a digital platform” but not including taxicab or limousine services), and obligations for “operators” (i.e., “a person that facilitates, through the use of a digital platform, the performance of...
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