There’s a growing underground economy that’s hurting our trucking sector, harming worker rights, and robbing Canadians of billions. Together, we can stop it.
Today, the Canadian Trucking Alliance announced the Stop Tax and Labour Abuse campaign.
There’s a growing underground economy that’s hurting our trucking sector, harming worker rights, and robbing Canadians of billions. Together, we can stop it.
Today, the Canadian Trucking Alliance announced the Stop Tax and Labour Abuse campaign.
This new campaign exists to put pressure on the federal government to enforce the law against Driver Inc. The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) define the Driver Inc. model as commercial vehicle drivers, who do not own/lease or operate their own vehicle, becoming incorporated and receiving payment from their carrier with no source deductions. This practice opens the door to the possibility of widespread tax manipulation by those engaged in Driver Inc.
Driver Inc. is harming individual truck drivers throughout the country who are experiencing exploitative working conditions and abuse. Despite having an employer-employee relationship, they are unfairly deprived of rights and benefits that all employees are entitled to in Canada.
“The CTA has launched this campaign in order to protect workers, stop labour abuse, defend the competitiveness of the trucking industry, and recoup billions of lost tax dollars that were meant to benefit Canadians,” said Stephen Laskowski, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Trucking Alliance. “We hope this movement will encourage Canadians to sign up and put pressure on their MPs, and in turn, the government, about this widespread egregious activity taking place in our backyards and throughout our country.”
Canadians can join the campaign at this innovative user-friendly website, located at StopTaxAndLabourAbuse.ca. It will connect Canadians directly with their MP using custom-designed tools that will allow users to tailor and edit their email themselves.
“We want the Federal Government to understand that we are invested in this fight to defend our industry,” said Laskowski. “Why? It’s simple. Driver Inc. is problematic because it is illegal, it is a driver misclassification model which results in truck drivers incorporating–often under pressure from the carrier–despite having an employee-employer relationship with their carrier. As a result, truck drivers are being unfairly deprived of the rights and benefits that all employees are entitled to in Canada.”
Workers are left without any fundamental rights under the Driver Inc. model, this includes but is in no way limited to:
- No overtime, vacation, sick, or holiday pay.
- No filing of CPP and EI deductions, which leaves them without a safety net to fall back on.
- A lack of protection that employees typically receive in case of a workplace injury, leaving them vulnerable and unable to earn a living should the unthinkable occur.
Meanwhile, trucking companies are using driver misclassification to avoid paying taxes, resulting in:
- Using the Driver Inc. model to commit tax evasion on a massive scale–amounting to over $1 billion dollars per year.
- Their actions are depriving local communities of critical resources.
- Tax evasion on such a huge scale is detrimental to the ability of local governments within every province to fund critical social services and community programs, such as healthcare and community clinics, schools and daycares, recreational programs and community centres, and critical infrastructure, like roads, bridges, and public transportation.
We are asking the federal government to enforce the law which would help ensure that the workers’ rights of truck drivers are upheld.