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A landmark report into the on-demand workforce commissioned by the Victorian Government has made a host of recommendations to make sure gig economy workers get the fair deal they deserve
Link information
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- Title
- Landmark Report Into On-Demand Workforce
- Authors
- The National Tribune
- Published
- Jul 14 2020
- Word count
- 450 words
The article doesn't speak much to the nature of the recommendations. Do you know what they would be? The way to fix it in the US would be to give the businesses money to keep their gig workers afloat, which I'm against. But, if this is more like minimum wage stuff, I can see that.
This report was commissioned long before the coronavirus pandemic existed. It's looking at long-term changes to how the gig economy operates, rather than short-term measures to get people through the pandemic.
It took a bit of digging, but I found the report (warning: PDF link). The practical recommendations (rather than legal recommendations such as "The Commonwealth government should lead change") include:
Clarify employment law so that more gig workers are classed as "employees" rather than "contractors".
Strengthen laws that prevent sham contracting: where a company sets up a legal arrangement to pretend there's an arms-length relationship between them and the worker, even though, for all intents and purposes, the worker is an employee.
Alter the burden of proof so that the company has to prove the worker is not an employee, rather than the current situation where the worker has to prove they are an employee.
Change employment laws so they apply to all workers equally, regardless of work status.
These recommendations would have the flow-on effects of giving these workers access to employee rights, such as annual leave, sick leave, superannuation, workplace health and safety, and minimum wages.
"Platforms" (Uber, Airtasker, Deliveroo, etc) be required to be transparent about their contracts, and for working arrangements to be fair.
The government should establish standards to underpin these contracts.
This would probably be similar to existing work awards for employees, where there are minimum requirements that every employee is entitled to (such as 10 days' annual leave), and which can not be traded away in employment contracts.
And... there should be a statutory body to oversee gig workers, and which determines whether a worker is really a contractor or actually an employee. This body would take questions and requests from workers, and assist the workers as required.