Unfair advantage for gig companies: Toronto Star

In a contribution to the Toronto Star November 25, 2021, Professor Ellen MacEachen highlights concerns with taxpayer subsidy of digital platform companies – a subsidy, she writes, that creates an unfair competitive advantage for platform companies and does not hold them responsible for providing decent work conditions:

“Ontario’s Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee is about to release its recommendations on leading the future of work in Ontario. But will they address the problem of how we taxpayers keep subsidizing gig courier and ride-hail companies like Uber and SkipTheDishes?

Dr. MacEachen notes gig companies have unfair advantages over other employers:

“Just because they are high tech, why does this excuse digital platforms from obligations carried by other Ontario employers? We have effectively created a subsidy for digital platform companies. We are all picking up the tab for these workers who are classified as nonemployees.

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