Uber must provide Accessible services, BC tribunal orders
Read the Tribunal decision here
Uber Canada has been ordered to pay $35,000 to a man who uses a wheelchair after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found he was discriminated against by the ridesharing company on March 1st, 2024. Uber was also ordered to offer those with disabilities accessible rides, which will likely prove a larger and more challenging proposition for the firm.
Complainant Martin Bauer was granted the award “as compensation for injury to his dignity, feelings and self respect,” stated the ruling by tribunal member Amber Prince.
“Taxi companies across Canada have wondered in recent years how it was possible that ridesharing companies were managing to skirt provincial Disabilities’ Acts,” notes Canadian Taxi Association president Marc Andre Way. “This British Columbia decision is the first indication we have received that they will NOT be allowed to ignore the requirements of these Acts. It is a step in the right direction.
Way points out that in municipalities in which Uber pays an “accessibility fee,” it does so voluntarily and could also stop paying it if it wished to. “Municipalities do not have the authority to compel an accessibility fee,” he notes.
At time of posting, Uber Canada has not issued any statement on this decision. Taxi News will provide Uber’s comments as they are provided.
