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Uber drivers fired for enforcing COVID protocols, union says

One 'top star' driver had his account deactivated after two retaliatory bad reviews

Coleman Molnar
Oct 12, 2021  •  October 14, 2021  •  1 minute read  •  Join the conversation
The Uber app is seen on an iPhone near a driver's vehicle after the company launched service, in Vancouver, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.
The Uber app is seen on an iPhone near a driver's vehicle after the company launched service, in Vancouver, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. Photo by Darryl Dyck /Canadian Press

A trio of Uber drivers in British Columbia who allegedly lost their jobs for insisting passengers adhere to COVID-19 protocols while in their vehicles are squaring off against their former employers with the help of a local union. 

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Gig-economy union UFCW 1518 has filed an unfair labour practices complaint to the B.C. Labour Relations Board against Uber. The complaint highlights multiple events, including one where a passenger threatened a driver with complaints before becoming violent. Police responded to that call and removed the passenger. 

Another incident involved a driver refusing to transport four passengers as required by Uber’s COVID-19 safety regulations. The driver believes these passengers purposefully left bad reviews and ratings as a result, which in turn triggered Uber to terminate his account. Attempts to reach out through the app’s support channels to explain the situation have yielded no results. 

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“I bought a new car, borrowed money from my friend and planned to start studying for my future, but my livelihood was stolen from me,” driver Bhupinder Singh said in a release . Both he and the other drivers relied on the app as their main source of income, with one of them accumulating over 1,000 5-star reviews on his account. “It affected my mental health. I was a top star rating driver and completed more than 2,000 trips and with two false and angry customer accusations, Uber deactivated my account without proper investigation.”

If the Labour Relations Board sides with the union, “the drivers could be reinstated and compensated for the unfair firings.” The UFCW is also pushing the B.C. government to amend the Employee Standards Act to better protect app-based contract workers.  

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