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Employee Or Independent Contractor?: Charting The Legal Significance Of The Distinction In Canada, Judy Fudge, Eric Tucker, Leah Vosko

Eric M. Tucker

The distinction between employees and independent contractors is crucial in determining the scope of application of labour and employment legislation in Canada, since the self-employed are, for the most part, treated as entrepreneurs who do not require the statutory protections accorded to employees. Yet statistics indicate that most self-employed people resemble employees more than entrepreneurs, in the sense that they are economically dependent on the sale of their labor and are often subject to inferior terms and conditions of work. Using four Canadian jurisdictions as a basis for this comparison, the authors demonstrate that there are wide variations in the …