App-based workers could receive a minimum wage higher than workers in other sectors, but only for the time during which they deliver food or carry passengers, according to a discussion paper from the provincial labour ministry.

Alternatively, app-based workers could end up being paid like taxi drivers with platform companies like Uber paying the difference if their workers do not get enough assignment to earn minimum wage.

These two approaches appear in the discussion paper titled Proposing Employment Standards and Other Protections for App-Based Ride-Hail and Food-Delivery Workers in British Columbia. The paper is the part of the ministry’s engagement on employment standards for app-based ride-hail and food-delivery workers. The ministry has asked parties to submit input by Sept. 30.

The paper outlines priorities heard during the first engagement phase and offers “policy context” for considering appropriate standards and other protections. Organized around a set of discussion questions, the paper asks for input on four broad areas: fair compensation standards; pay and destination transparency; account suspensions, deactivations and terminations; and workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety coverage.

Central to the question of pay is the difference between engaged time — the period during which workers accept assignments to their end — and unengaged time — the period, which workers spent logged on but without delivering food or carrying passengers.

The first approach discussed would see apply a minimum hourly wage for engaged time only, setting it higher than the general hourly minimum to recognize unpaid unengaged time. The report points to California, where app-based drivers earn 120 per cent of the local minimum wage for engaged time, and New York City, which uses a multiple of the minimum wage for engaged time based on the average time workers spend unengaged.

Source: The Chilliwack Progress