Is the " Gig " economy bringing third world working conditions to Australia ? Five food delivery riders have met their death on the streets of Sydney in the past two months and it appears that they work without any form of compensation cover.
This virus pandemic and the isolation required to fight it created a new trend in the food industry. Home delivery became the buzz and the restaurants quickly recruited workers who conveyed the meal to the customers home in the quickest possible time.
Speed was of the essence and this usually involved the rider on a bicycle, motorbike or scooter to weave through the dense city traffic. These riders are regarded as " contractors " who are self employed and not covered by the restaurants health and safety laws.
This is competitive business for both the delivery people and the restaurants. Any delay means a cold meal -and a complaint. Riders tend to break road laws to keep being hired and the rate they charge for their services must be competitive.
This insistence that they are contractors and not employees frees their employer from having to cover them with health and safety insurance and in most cases the rewards earned are considerably lower than the minimum average wage. They are constantly under quoted by rivals looking to break into this enterprising new trade.
Legal academics, unions and some members of parliament are calling for the extension of Chapter 6 of the NSW Industrial Relations Act to cover food delivery riders. This covers work conditions for truck drivers who are contractors and it could be amended to cover delivery riders.
What is now becoming obvious is the danger riders face when they are required to weave through city traffic to achieve deliveries in the shortest possible time. This claim to be a contractor is something invented by proponents of the Gig economy and now appears in its many forms to disguise the relationship between the employee and employer.
The health and safety laws in place were intended by the parliament to ensure that the loved ones of breadwinners had protection in the event of an accident and this guise as working as " contractors " is really evading the intention of the law.
Those five recent deaths must be making the restaurant trade very nervous. It will be up to the courts to decide on this issue and if they come down on the side of the riders they could be facing a big and unexpected claim for compensation.
As we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with a pool of unemployed it is obvious that taking on work as a delivery driver will appeal to the unskilled. It is important that this be swiftly brought within the boundaries of the intended law !
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