5 years ago
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTING
THE HON BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP
Reports today that Foodora used sham independent contracting, exposes Morrison and his Liberals’ failure to deal with the employment issues associated with the changing nature of the labour market.
It is reported that Foodora owes nearly $8 million in wages, superannuation and tax, and there are concerns tax payers may be left to pay a hefty part of the bill.
It is disgraceful that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has stood idly by when workers have been ripped off and undermined.
When it comes to the future of work and its implications on Australian businesses, workers and the economy, the Liberals have vacated the field.
They have no plan to deal with the rapid growth and impact of the gig economy on increasingly casualised and precarious work.
Despite multiple examples of underpayment and exploitation of workers employed as contractors, when they clearly are employees, the Government has completely failed to act.
A Shorten Labor Government will amend the law to prevent employers forcing their workers into sham contracting arrangements to avoid direct employment.
Sham independent contracting denies workers employer contributions to superannuation, sick leave, holiday pay, and all of the other entitlements while making them pay for their own workers compensation insurance.
Morrison and his Liberals should put workers first for once and take action. They can start by tightening the test of sham contracting.
Under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, we are headed towards a low paid, easy to hire, easy to fire society, which is undermining job security putting downward pressure on wages.
This Liberal Government has no interest in improving Australia’s workplace relations system. It hasn’t even responded to the Productivity Commission report from 2015 which recommended changes to the test of an independent contractor to discourage sham contracting.
The report states:
“It is too easy under the current test for an employer to escape prosecution for sham contracting. Recalibrating the test from one of ‘recklessness’ to ‘reasonableness’ is justified.”
While there are undoubtedly benefits to the gig economy and new forms of work organisation, if a business model can only succeed on the basis of undermining workers’ rights and avoiding workers entitlements, that is not a model Labor supports.
It is reported that Foodora owes nearly $8 million in wages, superannuation and tax, and there are concerns tax payers may be left to pay a hefty part of the bill.
It is disgraceful that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has stood idly by when workers have been ripped off and undermined.
When it comes to the future of work and its implications on Australian businesses, workers and the economy, the Liberals have vacated the field.
They have no plan to deal with the rapid growth and impact of the gig economy on increasingly casualised and precarious work.
Despite multiple examples of underpayment and exploitation of workers employed as contractors, when they clearly are employees, the Government has completely failed to act.
A Shorten Labor Government will amend the law to prevent employers forcing their workers into sham contracting arrangements to avoid direct employment.
Sham independent contracting denies workers employer contributions to superannuation, sick leave, holiday pay, and all of the other entitlements while making them pay for their own workers compensation insurance.
Morrison and his Liberals should put workers first for once and take action. They can start by tightening the test of sham contracting.
Under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, we are headed towards a low paid, easy to hire, easy to fire society, which is undermining job security putting downward pressure on wages.
This Liberal Government has no interest in improving Australia’s workplace relations system. It hasn’t even responded to the Productivity Commission report from 2015 which recommended changes to the test of an independent contractor to discourage sham contracting.
The report states:
“It is too easy under the current test for an employer to escape prosecution for sham contracting. Recalibrating the test from one of ‘recklessness’ to ‘reasonableness’ is justified.”
While there are undoubtedly benefits to the gig economy and new forms of work organisation, if a business model can only succeed on the basis of undermining workers’ rights and avoiding workers entitlements, that is not a model Labor supports.