Uber Eats overhauls business model amid pressure over workers’ status

Uber Eats has overhauled its business model in Australia, requiring riders to hold ABNs and letting them transfer delivery jobs to others in a move that will make it harder …

Staring down the barrel of a landmark judgment on its workers’ status, Uber folds

Uber has settled a legal challenge that struck at the heart of its business model and could have resulted in its drivers and riders being classified as employees, after three …

Fruit-picking wage-theft laws not enough to deal with farm-work exploitation

After speaking mainly to working holidaymakers and other migrants workers online for six months, I drove 2000 kilometres from my home office in Adelaide and began visiting beachside backpacker hostels, …

Food delivery levy proposed to pay for workers’ comp for the gig economy

Food delivery riders would be protected under a compensation scheme funded by a customer levy on food orders under a landmark proposal to go before the NSW government. The government …

Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020

The bill has been framed as a COVID recovery measure in order “to improve the operation and usability of the national industrial relations system,” including by “providing greater certainty and …

Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Uyghur Forced Labour) Bill 2020

The purpose of the Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Uyghur Forced Labour) Bill 2020 is to ban the importation of goods from Xinjiang in the People’s Republic of China …

Gig workers get collective bargaining rights

Gig economy workers will be able to collectively bargain for their rates under a new exemption from competition laws for small businesses and independent contractors. The Australian Competition and Consumer …

Collectivising the gig economy: In the pandemic, it’s a matter of life and death

“A landmark Australian inquiry calls out the gig economy’s rotten core In July 2020, the Report of the Inquiry into the Victorian On-Demand Workforce was released.[1] This was the first full-scale …

Conflict or Cooperation? Australian Union Responses to COVID-19

Read the full blog post here: https://labourlawdownunder.com.au/?p=949 The Australian union movement has experienced long-term membership decline, as have unions in many comparable countries over the last 30 years. Union density …

Unions in the Fair Work Act Decade – and the Aftermath of ‘Change the Rules’

“The decade in which the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) has been in operation has continued to present challenges for the Australian union movement. Despite high hopes that the 2009 legislation’s support …

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