Uber goes to court docket to dam the discharge of employees’ compensation information

Uber will go to court to block the publication of its employee compensation documents after the provincial information and privacy officer ordered them to be released to the media.

In a petition for judicial review filed with the Star, the driver and food delivery giant argues that Ontario’s data protection agency “erred in law” in a May ruling that upheld an unnamed media company’s motion for employee compensation files.

What follows is a Freedom of Information request to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board requesting Uber and other grocery delivery companies’ account records, including all “emails, memos, notes, questionnaires, forms and other records”.

The WSIB decided to grant her release, but Uber appealed that decision to the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner – and lost.

In a statement, the company said its filing with the departmental court “is the next step in the process to determine whether certain records are subject to the Information Rights Access Act”. A spokesperson didn’t respond to other questions from the star about the nature of the documents and why Uber refused to publish them.

The court records state that the company is filing an order to “overturn” the decision of the Information and Data Protection Commission (IPC) and “not to disclose” the records.

In a statement sent by email, the Data Protection Bureau said it would “respond to this request, including drawing up its procedural record, which will be made available to the parties and the court. The parties will then submit and submit their written arguments and a hearing will be scheduled. “

In the past year, the office was served a total of eight judicial reviews, the statement said.

The contested Uber records include “correspondence” with the WSIB, including a notice of a review of Uber’s board rating and its premium tariffs, according to the IPC’s decision published in May.

How – and whether – companies are classified by the WSIB is important, as this can have a significant impact on damage costs; Risk sectors pay higher insurance premiums. Companies that are not registered with the board of directors pay no insurance premiums at all, but accident insurance is compulsory in many industries.

In a statement emailed, a CBC spokesman confirmed that its journalists approved the freedom of information request regarding a marketplace investigation in 2018 “regarding eligibility for work-related allowances for couriers working for popular grocery delivery apps “Have submitted.

The investigation found that Uber Eats was not registered with the Ontario Workers’ Injury Department, meaning its couriers were not eligible for benefits if they were injured on the job. At that time the WSIB had decided that the company was a “telephone answering machine / call center” and was not legally obliged to register with the board of directors. Foodora, on the other hand, provided injury protection while SkipTheDishes’ status was “pending”.

The CBC investigation led to a review with the WSIB, and Uber is now registered as a courier company, according to the board’s website.

Ontario’s transparency laws generally allow access to public sector records unless there are exceptions to confidentiality. Some of the exceptions can be overridden if the data protection officers decide that the release of documents is in the public interest.

In contesting the WSIB’s decision to release its files, Uber argued that some of the records contained sensitive business information it had given the board in confidence about its “sales of services to passengers and restaurants” and its “counterparty relationship” with couriers. Publishing the records, the company argued, would put Uber “in the wrong light” and potentially affect its ability to retain couriers.

The company also relied in part on an exemption that allowed certain work-related documents to be withheld from the public.

The data protection officer rejected these arguments, stating that the records were received and created by the board due to its right to conduct investigations against employers or companies.

The Star has previously received employee compensation records from grocery delivery company Foodora. The company did not deny the publication of the documents listing 61 accidents between 2017 and 2019, with names and other personal information blacked out.

Security in the gig economy is a focal point for delivery drivers who receive little training and are referred to by apps as independent contractors. This categorization is under intensive legal scrutiny by lawyers and employees who say that it constitutes an incorrect classification of employees and leads to an unfair exclusion from basic occupational health and safety.

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Last year, a star investigation podcast on the gig economy found that Foodora’s 2018 injury rate was six times higher than other courier companies across the province. At the time, it was not possible to compare Foodora’s injury rate with Uber Eats as it had only recently registered with the board of directors.

Foodora declared bankrupt and left Canada after the provincial labor committee ruled that its workers were not independent contractors and had the right to unionize; At the time, the company said it could “not speculate as to why the injury rates were significantly higher”.

The sub-court must now decide whether to accept or reject Uber’s application. If accepted, the case can be sent back to the Data Protection Bureau for re-examination.