Category Archives: Gig economy

Uber to pay $272m compensation in settlement with Australian taxi drivers

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Rideshare company agrees to settle long-running class-action lawsuit, finally giving cab and hire-car drivers the compensation they deserve, lawyers say

Uber will cough up almost $272m to compensate taxi and hirecar drivers who lost out when the rideshare company “aggressively” moved into the Australian market.

A class action against Uber was expected to go to trial in the supreme court of Victoria on Monday but judge Lisa Nichols vacated it after the rideshare giant agreed to the $271.8m settlement.

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New EU gig economy laws saved from oblivion by Belgian compromise

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Directive aims to give taxi and delivery drivers such as those working for Uber and Deliveroo rights similar to those enjoyed by full employees

New laws designed to improve the rights of gig economy workers in the EU contracted to companies such as Uber have been saved from oblivion after they won the majority backing of member states.

The legislation had been blocked by a group of countries last month, when France said it could not support the text on the table and Germany abstained.

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Academics win claim against Oxford University over ‘sham contracts’

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Rebecca Abrams and Alice Jolly claimed they were denied important workplace rights for 15 years

Two academics who sued Oxford University for employing them on “sham contracts” as gig economy workers, have won their claim for employee status in a ruling that could have implications for other higher education workers on precarious contracts.

Rebecca Abrams and Alice Jolly, both respected authors, taught on Oxford’s prestigious creative writing course for 15 years, but were employed on fixed-term “personal services” contracts, which they claimed denied them important workplace rights.

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Right to disconnect bill passes Senate but needs urgent fix to remove criminal penalties for employers

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Labor will be forced to introduce special legislation after Coalition prevented last-minute amendments to fix the issue

Labor’s closing loopholes bill has passed the Senate with a Greens amendment creating a new right for employees to disconnect from work emails and calls.

But the final votes were thrown into confusion by the discovery that the bill inadvertently allowed criminal penalties for breach of a stop order by the Fair Work Commission. Labor sought leave to amend this, but was denied by the Coalition.

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Family of Uber Eats rider who died after being hit by truck urges MPs to pass Labor’s gig worker changes

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Union helps Burak Dogan’s family lodge workers’ compensation claim after company denied them $400,000 death benefit

Yavuz Cikar still seethes at the injustice that followed his nephew Burak Dogan’s death.

Dogan, an Uber Eats rider and 30-year-old Turkish student, was riding an electric bike in Sydney’s inner west in April 2020. About 26 minutes after he cancelled an Uber Eats delivery, he was hit by a truck.

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Australian employers who deliberately underpay workers to face million-dollar fines or up to 10 years in jail

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Workplace relations minister Tony Burke says he is ‘surprised’ move to close loopholes has been controversial

Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has said sending employers to jail for wage theft is a loophole that needs to close, adding he is surprised it has been controversial.

The minister also has hit back again at industry critics warning the laws promising to improve conditions for gig workers will make services more expensive.

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Australia’s gig economy workers set to benefit from minimum pay and protection against ‘unfair deactivation’

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Labor bill gives Fair Work Commission power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of ‘employee-like workers’ on digital platforms

Gig economy workers in Australia including ride-share drivers and food delivery riders could soon benefit from minimum pay and protection against “unfair deactivation”.

Under a bill to be introduced by the Albanese government next week, the Fair Work Commission will be given the power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of “employee-like workers” on digital platforms from 1 July 2024.

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UberEats food delivery driver dies in Sydney crash

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The death is the second in a month and the 13th since 2017 of a transport gig worker, with calls for ‘life or death’ reforms to the industry

A second Sydney food delivery driver has died in a month, prompting “life or death” calls for urgent reform to the transport industry.

The UberEats driver, believed to be aged in his 20s, died in Campbelltown about 6pm on Saturday in a collision with a ute.

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UK bill waters down protections against ‘robo-firing’ in gig economy, say experts

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Law would weaken right to force app-based firms to explain automated decisions, says research group

Protections for gig economy workers will be watered down should ministers succeed in pushing a controversial bill through parliament, experts have said.

The new law would weaken a relatively little-known right to force app-based firms to explain themselves when they make automated decisions, known as “management by algorithm”, before many workers had even realised they had it, they said.

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Amazon workers in Coventry to request union recognition after membership doubles

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It would be first time a UK union wins formal negotiation rights and comes after GMB-organised strikes at warehouse

Amazon workers at the delivery firm’s Coventry depot are demanding formal union recognition, after membership more than doubled during strike action.

If granted, it would be the first time a union in the UK has won the right to negotiate with the American tech firm.

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Gig workers to get rights to workers comp under NSW Labor election promise

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Gig, disability and home care workers would also gain access to a portable entitlement scheme

Uber delivery drivers and casual employees will be able to claim compensation if injured at work and take entitlements from job to job if Labor wins the New South Wales election.

New entitlements would make gig workers more resilient and make the labour environment less precarious in general, the state opposition said on Sunday.

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NSW levy on ride-hailing and taxi passengers extended until 2029

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Levy to compensate taxi licence holders for disruption of the industry by Uber forms part of $645m in payments as industry faces complete deregulation

NSW ride-hailing and taxi passengers will pay levies for another two years – until June 2029 – as taxi licence owners move a step closer to securing further compensation.

The government has outlined its plan to deliver a further $500m to licence holders, on top of $145m already doled out, as part of plans for the complete deregulation of the industry.

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Australia news live updates: Greens accuse government of undoing its own climate legislation

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Adam Bandt reacts to Labor’s decision to open 46,000km of ocean to exploration, saying his party will continue to advocate for a moratorium on new coal and gas projects. Follow live

A massive haul of the drug “ice”, with an estimated street value of $1.6bn, has been seized in NSW in the largest discovery of its kind in Australia, AAP reports.

Last month, Australian Border Force officers homed in on a number of sea cargo containers that arrived at Port Botany in Sydney.

There would need a change to the law.. with the Liberals saying they’ll take an oppositional role, the only way that will happen is with the support of the Greens.

Our position is that workers should be able to bargain collectively at whatever level they choose.

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The Uber files: how the leak prompted outrage across the world

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From Europe to India and the US, the revelations have fuelled anger from across the spectrum, from the drivers to politicians

The release of the Uber files has prompted a frenzy of reaction around the world, piling pressure on senior politicians, fuelling calls for a crackdown on corporate lobbying and drawing outrage from groups including traditional taxi drivers.

The fuse was lit with the publication of revelations from a trove of more than 124,000 documents about Uber spanning from 2013 to 2017, leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and international media.

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Number of people in UK with insecure jobs rises to 3.7 million, TUC report says

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Union organisation criticises Tory ‘litany of failures on workers’ rights’ five years on from Taylor review

The Trades Union Congress has criticised the Conservative party for “a litany of failures on workers’ rights” as it published analysis showing a rise in insecure jobs in the five years since the government pledged to make work in the UK fairer.

At least 3.7 million people in Britain are in insecure jobs, up from 3.6m in 2021, out of a total workforce of 34 million, according to analysis of government data by the TUC. That compares to 3.2 million in late 2016, before the publication of the Taylor review, a landmark government-backed report on work in the UK.

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths as SA reports first monkeypox case – as it happened

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths; SA records first monkeypox case; Anthony Albanese meets Justin Trudeau at Nato summit. This blog is now closed

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has renewed his calls for China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world”.

Albanese – who has been in Madrid for a Nato summit – spoke to reporters yesterday after having a meeting on the sidelines with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

There we discussed the important focus of this Nato’s summit on the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the support amongst democratic countries for the rules-based international order and a determination to continue to provide support to the government and the people of Ukraine who are suffering as a result of this breach of international law and this brutal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Vladimir Putin has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world and provide a real determination to make sure that the resilience being shown by the Ukrainian people is backed up by resilience and support from democratic countries, including Nato, but also countries throughout the world.

Well, what we saw is prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw a without-limits partnership between Russia and China. We’ve seen a failure of China to condemn any of the Russian aggression that has occurred against Ukraine. China must look at what is happening and look at the resolve that is there from throughout the world and should be condemning Russia’s actions.

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Uber and Transport Workers’ Union strike agreement on gig economy employment standards

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Ride-sharing giant and union support an independent regulatory body to create industry-wide standards and resolve disputes

Ride-sharing giant Uber and the Transport Workers’ Union have struck a landmark agreement on proposed employment standards and benefits ahead of expected new gig economy regulation from the Albanese government.

The union and Uber have also agreed to jointly support the creation of a new independent government-funded regulatory body to create industry-wide standards for ride share and food delivery gig workers following months of negotiations.

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Family of Hungry Panda delivery rider killed at work awarded $834,000 in landmark decision

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Family to receive compensation for death of Xiaojun Chen in what union says is first case where a gig economy worker has been considered an employee

The family of a Happy Panda delivery rider killed in Sydney in 2020 will receive more than $800,000 under the NSW workers’ compensation scheme, in what the union says is the first case where a gig economy worker has been considered an employee.

Xiaojun Chen was killed after being struck by a bus while riding his motorbike in the Sydney suburb of Zetland on 29 September 2020, while working for Hungry Panda.

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Blow to Uber as top Massachusetts court blocks ballot question

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Justices reject planned ballot measure, citing proposal limiting companies’ liability for accidents

Massachusetts’ top court on Tuesday blocked an effort to ask voters whether app-based ride-share and delivery drivers should be treated as independent contractors rather than employees, in a setback for companies such as Uber and Lyft.

The unanimous decision by the Massachusetts supreme judicial court marked a victory for labor activists who sued and argued the ballot measure proposal contained loopholes that would create a sub-minimum wage for drivers for the companies.

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‘We have been mistreated’: cousin of Whitehall cleaner who died speaks out

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Vincente Gomes is a cousin and former colleague of Emanuel Gomes, who died after going into work with a fever

A government cleaner has described how he and his colleagues feel powerless to refuse difficult situations such as clearing up after parties, amid alleged maltreatment and low pay.

Sue Gray’s report on the Partygate scandal disclosed that government cleaners and security guards were subjected to a “lack of respect and poor treatment” while officials drank excessively, spilled wine on the walls and partied into the small hours.

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