Hello Everyone,
1. I am a permanent resident of Nova Scotia, Canada from 2019 and a valid NS Class 5 drivers license valid till September 2025.
2. Having struggled for a year in the Canadian job market during a pandemic period, I decided to apply for delivery services like UberEats. After processing for almost 2 months, I got UberEats activated but observed only few deliveries 1-2 max per day and the per delivery pay is only $3-4.
3. As I learned Uber rides also started its services in Halifax in December 2020, I inquired with the Uber Support and I was told that I am eligible for UberX. Accordingly, I followed their in-app process, spent my time, money and energy to get all the documents viz. RCMP background check, RMV Driver's extract, Child Abuse registry check etc.
4. I noticed that the Uber support team rejected my driver's extract a couple of times. On enquiring, I was told that the Driver needs to have three years experience. On checking Uber.com-(
https://www.uber.com/ca/en/drive/requirements/?city=halifax), I found that it only requires driver's to have 3 years of experience (It doesn't specify that the experience has to be local-NS, Canada). However, Uber Support clarified that Driver needs to have local driving experience.
5. I found this condition of three years of Canadian experience discriminatory in nature, so I checked the Canada Human Rights Act to double-check. In Summary-
- The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits any kind of condition that restricts employment or work to newcomers/ permanent residents of Canada.
- If the Uber policy is intended drivers to have three years driving experience in Nova Scotia, it essentially means the newcomers even after having Full valid NS driver's license
- Having researched, I noticed there are several case laws, recent being in Ontario wherein the Human Rights Tribunal allowed refugees to be exempted from One year waiting period to get the full G License if they can produce a driving license from their home country which is valid for at least two in the last three years (Read: Link).
6. I have highlighted the above policy issue to the Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Matthew Price-GM, Uber Canada but there is no response till date. In fact, Uber in-app support has stopped responding to my request and my Uber Driver registration is still incomplete.
Having gone through above, can anyone help me understand/ evaluate whether Uber Canada is allowed by the law of Canada to impose such conditions requiring permanent residents/ newcomers to have three years of Canadian experience, and discriminate against them although they are otherwise qualified to do the job?
Thanks!