Fresh on the heels of a study and report released by the State of Victoria, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus has alleged that abuse within the gig economy happens to be so widespread that employers have gone as far as to intentionally deny its workers basic rights and entitlements.

And as a result, the ACTU and McManus have appealed to the Morrison government to bring about tighter legislation to standardize the gig economy so it comes in line with the rest of Australia’s traditional workforce.

“At the moment, so-called ‘gig economy’ workers have less rights than workers did 100 years ago. They deserve the same rights as all other Australian workers,” said McManus.

“By allowing these workers to be exploited by their employers and by the so-called gig economy system, our Government is not only turning their back on the workers and their families, but is also creating an unfair system for employers who have to compete against these companies.

“These companies are racing to the bottom by deliberately eroding workplace rights and protections for workers,” added McManus.

While federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has agreed with McManus that the definitions of what constitutes a casual worker needs to be redefined, McManus further stated that gig economy workers lack the same rights which members of the casual workforce currently possess.

“Insecure work is rampant in Australia. This report demonstrates that insecure work arrangements go beyond just casual employment,” McManus said.

Tim Pallas, in serving a dual role as the State of Victoria’s minister for industrial relations as well as being the treasurer in Daniel Andrews’ government, released the report – which the Victorian government has flagged as the first of its kind anywhere in the country – after a two-year study spurred on by widespread suspicions about the reality of their wages and entitlements.

Pallas and former Fair Work Commission member Natalie James, who chaired the committee into the inquiry, concluded that at least in the State of Victoria, governments must resolve to find a balance between the needs of platform workers with those of business, so innovation and productivity isn’t stifled.

“The gig economy is relied upon by millions of consumers and workers across the country, but there are holes when it comes to industrial relations that put workers’ rights to fair pay and conditions at risk,” said Pallas.

“This report will help plug the gaps that leave workers in these industries exposed and give workers a fair deal,” Pallas pledged.

“These recommendations will address residual uncertainty around the work status of many workers, including some who are in a vulnerable position in the labour market, and combat the costs of this uncertainty to workers and businesses alike,” said James, who in her five-year term as the Fair Work Ombudsman that concluded in 2018, possessed a long line of decisions against companies in a wide range of workplace offenses, including wage theft and underpayment cases.

In the report, James and her committee suggested the following legislative reforms be instituted:

• Clarify and codify work status to reduce doubt about work status and, therefore, the application of entitlements, protections and obligations for workers and business
• Streamline advice and support to workers whose work status is borderline
• Fast-track resolution of work status so workers and business do not operate with prolonged doubt about the rules
• Provide for fair conduct for platform workers who are not employees, through establishing Fair Conduct and Accountability Standards that are principles based and developed through a consultative process with relevant stakeholders
• Improve remedies for non-employee workers to address deficiencies in the existing approach
• Enhance enforcement to ensure compliance, including where sham contracting has occurred

Whereas future clarifications of definitions around casual workers and the “better off overall test” may be required, the ACTU takes a long-range view that whatever the State of Victoria may engineer – as was recently the case with its anti-wage theft law – the federal government should consider adopting.

“Each and every form of insecure work is a danger to the economic safety and security of Australian workers and should be urgently addressed by the Morrison Government,” said McManus.

James, in the conclusion of her committee’s report, said that the laws surrounding the Fair Work Act (2009) should be amended to reflect the growing numbers of workers currently involved in the gig economy, with the federal government working together with the states towards a bipartisan solution.

“The composition of Australia’s labor market and its capacity to meet the needs of workers and businesses, is a critical element of our future economic success. The growth of digital platforms in Australia, using models that operate outside of labor market regulation, has put the spotlight on the need to balance agility and flexibility, with protections,” the report said in its concluding chapter.

“The Commonwealth is responsible for Australia’s national system of workplace laws. It was the universal view of those participating in the Inquiry that any change should be led nationally. Reforms confined to a single state risk creating yet more complexity and inconsistency and could impose an unnecessary regulatory burden on national businesses,” the text added.

A recent run of statistics regarding Australia’s young people in the workforce, occurring prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, reveal an alarming trend towards record levels of unemployment and under-employment for men and women in that demographic.

And with that, it only highlights the growing inequality happening within the country.

Citing a current national average of 12 workers vying for every available job, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) points out that the job market for the 15-to-24-year-old demographic is at a 42-year low since the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) started tracking such data in 1978.

With regard to unemployment and under-employment figures for that demographic, 37.8 per cent of young workers are either out of work or looking for more hours at work, with many of them only clinging onto their jobs via the Morrison government’s JobKeeper scheme.

“Young people are facing conditions that we haven’t seen since the 1970s. They need support from the Government to ensure that they come out of this pandemic with a job,” Michele O’Neil, the ACTU’s president, said when the ABS statistics were released.

“What they are getting instead is baseless assertions from the Morrison Government that they aren’t taking their opportunities. The data clearly shows these opportunities are a figment of the Government’s imagination,” she added.

O’Neil also implores those within the government to act on extending or increasing the JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes before they are due to expire within the next three months.

“Cutting JobKeeper in September would be a catastrophe for the millions of Australian workers who are currently using it to pay their bills and rent,” said O’Neil.

“We need leadership and a plan for job creation from this Government, not a tired rerun of blaming unemployed young people for the fact they can’t find a job,” she added.

The ACTU also points out that a greater concentration of the unemployment and under-employment problem as it pertains to young workers lies in regional areas, such as in regional Queensland and regional Tasmania.

The ACTU, while foreshadowing an unveiling of its plan to inspire an employment revival in those areas next week, has also hit out at the government for not addressing the issue, nor for having a plan which inspires unemployment numbers to drop in those regions.

“Our message to Australians in regional Queensland and Tasmania is this: The Morrison government needs to step up and deliver a comprehensive plan to protect and create jobs. The Australian union movement has a comprehensive plan for jobs that will rebuild our economy in the aftermath of the pandemic and the government are welcome to use it as a starting point,” O’Neil has declared.

“If the Commonwealth government won’t provide leadership on this, Australian unions will,” she added.

Exploitation among international students is also ripe on top of the frustrations of young workers. A survey of over 5000 international students at the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney has come to the following conclusions surrounding wage theft and poor employment conditions and entitlements:

• Three out of every four students surveyed are being paid below the legal minimum wage, per the National Employment Standards set out by the Fair Work Commission;
• One of every four students surveyed are even being paid less than $12 per hour;
• During the pandemic, international students have had their superannuation stolen;
• These students have had to wait in long lines at food banks in order to survive;
• And two out of every three international students surveyed did not seek information or help at work, because of “visa concerns or fear of job loss”.

Tony Burke, in his role as shadow minister for industrial relations, says that the findings of the survey have an impact on all workers within Australia, and not just the demographic of younger workers.

“Exploitation of people on temporary visas puts downward pressure on wages of all workers in Australia. Just like temporary migrants, Australians are experiencing wage theft on a wide scale which makes the first recession in 29 years even more challenging for hard-working Australians and their families,” said Burke.

Kristina Keneally, the ALP’s deputy Senate leader and the shadow minister for immigration and citizenship, concurs with Burke and his views to interpret the study.

“When the coronavirus pandemic began, Scott Morrison said we were all in this in together but the experiences of international students in Australia paints a vastly different picture,” said Keneally.

“Unlike Scott Morrison, Labor will always speak out against the exploitation of workers – including the exploitation of international students – expose it and organise against it,” she added.

That sense of determination from the opposition can only help in arresting the inequalities of younger workers and international students. Now to get assistance of effort from others of similar interests.

The ever-increasing practices of home delivery of Chinese food, “Taco Tuesday” tacos, burgers, pizza, and other lunch or dinner items agreed upon as being quite delectable to one’s palate may be quite convenient in the realm of our fast-paced society.

However, do spare a kind thought or two for the good men and women who deliver your food on behalf of delivery services such as UberEats, Deliveroo, MenuLog, or DoorDash, and so on.

As well as those who drive for ride-sharing services such as Uber, Didi, or Ola, to name a few of those.

In a multi-university survey commissioned by the Victorian state government, workers in the gig economy – to the surprise of no one, really – are worse off in their compensation than regular casual workers are, and certainly versus those in secure employment.

The Victorian government’s report, from a survey done under the auspices of treasurer and industrial relations minister Tim Pallas, involved the legwork research performed by Queensland University of Technology, the University of Adelaide and University of Technology Sydney, with the intent of uncovering justifications about community concerns over wages and conditions in the gig economy.

Furthermore, the survey revealed unknown information about the nature and inner workings of the gig economy and its workforce – and perhaps some statistics that would shock the public.

While the report revealed that while nearly two-thirds of all Australians use gig economy delivery services, its workers are exploited in a manner even more shocking than originally assumed.

Some of the statistics, among roughly 14,000 respondents:

• Among more than 100 different companies in the gig economy, a ratio greater than one in three of its workers are employed by more than one platform, often via a variety of platform apps.
• The demographics tend towards younger people, and males.
• Those who speak English as their second language are 1.5 times more likely to engage as platform workers.

And then it gets more shocking – and, arguably, more inhumane and exploitative:

• More than 30 percent of respondents did not know whether their platform has a dispute resolution process.
• Nearly half report that their platform does not provide them with work-related insurance.
• Two out of every five respondents, when asked about the details of their remuneration, did not know any of those details. (Here’s a hint: as for salary alone, it’s less than the legal minimum wage outlined by the Fair Work Commission.)
• Gig economy workers are spending upwards of five hours per week on unpaid platform activities, ranging from seeking work, updating profiles, and ultimately quoting and searching and bidding for work.

Is the ignorance in a state of bliss here? Truly a case of not knowing terms, conditions, or even their own rights. Or even if they have any. Truth is, their rights are less than those of the typical worker – even those on casual status.

For gig economy workers, these are basically sweatshop conditions – if the ultra-modern sweatshop is comprised of any of a multitude of restaurants and anything between two and four wheels. And in many cases, pedal power.

Makes one ponder what recourse workers in the gig economy even have.

How can they right the wrongs thrust upon them? Can they unionise, even in a means of banding together? Can they collectively bargain? Or do can they even gain the rights to take any action whatsoever?

One would presume that as long as the perception exists that one not being an employee but rather that of a freelancer or independent contractor, for one company or several, those rights would be hard to come by. A ruling from one Canadian tribunal over the ability for gig economy workers to unionise earlier this year does give their Australian comrades a glimmer of hope. But how likely is that precedent to repeat itself in Australia?

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), at the height of its “Change The Rules” campaign two years ago, called for gig economy workers to be put on an equal footing as those with secure employment.

“Everyone deserves these rights. We need to change the rules so everyone has basic rights, including the right to collectively bargain,” said ACTU national secretary Sally McManus at the time.

It is a slow and arduous process to make those changes happen, but at least McManus and the ACTU have let the growing sector of the gig economy know that the union movement is on their side.

In any event, reform is needed to bring gig economy workers in line with the minimum national employment standards. Whether that happens in tribunals or the courts, or via collective bargaining, remains to be seen.

Recently an old friend of mine from California sent me a nice little relic that took me down memory lane: a copy of the old student newspaper from my university days that contained my first real byline, and thereby my initial entry into journalism.

That newspaper, a weekly summer edition of the Cal State Pioneer based at the California State University at Hayward (now the CSU of the East Bay), has survived very well, for a 30-year-old piece of eight-page newsprint. The aging of time has turned the newsprint’s parchment into an orange-to-brown hue, but the memories inside are still quite sharp. I served as a community sport reporter for the paper – quite challenging in the university community during the summer months – in addition to being the lead copy editor in the run-up to publication on Wednesday nights ahead of a Thursday lunchtime release on campus.

Mind you, these were the days before the world wide web, and long before any viral activity on social media. We even did layout by hand, with the aid of an archaic version of PageMaker, and sticky tape. But those of us who worked on that newspaper, we thought we had hit the big time. Since I received this lovely relic, I’m wondering if any of those who I worked with on that project in that summer are still around the traps in the journalism profession. Such was our tight-knit group, amid pizza runs to get us through each publication night – and a final weekly 1:30am beer run to celebrate, once the paper was “put to bed”.

The Cal State Pioneer represented a quality staple of not just on-campus life in the summer of 1990, but it was a cornerstone of the mass communication department at CSUH. And as such, that which constituted a highly enriching liberal arts and humanities-based education in the CSU system at that time.

Fast-forward 30 years, and such a broad-based education path has come under attack in Australia, by the federal government, and specifically Dan Tehan, the Minister for Education.

Last week, Tehan proposed, in an effort to stimulate the “jobs and growth” agenda by the federal government, a blueprint reform of the tertiary education system – to basically halve the course fees for degree programs leading to vocational jobs in areas such as nursing, teaching, agriculture, information technology, and other sectors anticipating high employment growth, while virtually doubling fees for any study pathways relating to the arts and humanities.

A shocking development, considering it was the LNP which significantly slashed funding to TAFE schools and the VET sector since 2013 to the point where their budgets are now severely compromised. It would figure that if the Morrison government wants to inspire the economy through that “jobs and growth” agenda, why not simply re-invest in the TAFEs and the VETs?

Moreover, this revelation by the federal government in tertiary education fees policy, intended to drive young people of university age towards vocational-based degrees, is also seen as an attack not just on the arts and humanities, but also on critical thinking. And the lively university experience of a well-rounded education as well.

Especially without a Bill of Rights in Australia which would broadly define what residents’ rights and liberties are, a gradual attack by the LNP governments over the years upon those who oppose its policies and attacking the right to protest and dissent has been underway for quite some time – and the abilities around intellectualism and critical thinking are deemed essential to defend these actions.

Hypocrisy abounds in the halls of the federal parliament in this proposed policy, given the number of LNP ministers and senators who are in possession of Bachelor of Arts degrees from their university days. Not only does Tehan hold one, but so do 12 others in the LNP alone, with a majority of all MPs from all parties holding a double degree in law and some form of the arts.

The reason why arts degrees among our movers and shakers in Canberra exist is quite simple: a liberal arts education with a grounding in critical thinking skills better prepares one for the real world and how it operates, than that of a vocational background alone does. While work and employment can define who a person is, one’s experiences should be greater.

It’s done me no harm over the last 30 years living in two countries, and the same goes for countless hordes of others like myself globally since then. An education in critical thinking, the arts and humanities, it has been said, may not prepare one for a career, but can prepare one for several of them. And for the diversity of life itself.