Our northern neighbor, the common loon. Photo from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

According to OntarioTravel.net, Ontario’s official bird is the Common Loon. The loon is a water bird, regarded as an agile swimmer and a connosseur of the fine fish that populate Ontario’s lakes.

Loon has a second, seemingly unrelated definition too, though. According to dictionary.com, synonyms for “loony” include screwball, wacky, kooky, nutty, crazed, batty, lunatic, cuckoo, nuts, silly, psycho, berserk, ape, barmy, bonkers, cracked, daffy, daft, delirious, and demented.

For fans of arbitration agreements, a recent decision by the Ontario Court of Appeals might be regarded as a bit loony (using the non-water-bird definition). Ontario has generally been considered a province friendly to arbitration agreements. In Heller v. Uber Technologies, Inc., the court found Uber’s stock arbitration agreement to be invalid under Ontario law. The court said the agreement was an attempt to contract out of the Employment Standards Act (ESA), which protects Ontario employees. But the court made that ruling before deciding whether the Uber drivers were employees subject to the ESA, rather than independent contractors. It’s this kind of (il)logic that results in baffling decisions like this one, which now calls into question the validity of independent contractor arbitration agreements across the province.

This post by a Canadian law firm provides an excellent description of the case and the court’s rationale. It lacks references to waterfowl, but otherwise, it’s well done and informative.

Companies using arbitration agreements with independent contractors in Ontario should pay attention. It may be necessary to revise Ontario arbitration agreements in light of this ruling.

For more information on joint employment, gig economy issues, and other labor and employment developments to watch in 2019, join me in Chicago on Mar. 21 for the 2019 BakerHostetler Master Class on Labor Relations and Employment Law: Meeting Today’s Challenges. Advance registration is required. Please email me if you plan to attend, tlebowitz@bakerlaw.com. If you list my name in your RSVP, I will have your registration fee waived.

© 2019 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.