Uber’s warning that Australians may pay up to 85% more to have a meal delivered if gig economy workers are treated as employees under proposed workplace legislation is an admission that delivery rider workers are being woefully underpaid, experts have said.
Uber supports the Fair Work Commission setting minimum standards but made the claim about price rises in its submission to a Senate inquiry into the legislation, to demonstrate what it said were “significant concerns” about comparing pay and conditions of traditional employees when setting standards for gig workers.
The Transport Workers Union said the figures put forward by the company, which also forecast Australians could pay 60% more to catch an Uber, missed the point of the legislation because it proposed a new standard known as “employee-like” should be applied to gig economy workers, not that they should be treated exactly as employees.
The union’s national assistant secretary, Nick McIntosh, said it meant any gig worker should be able to have minimum standards.
“Then the Fair Work Commission can set what they consider to be appropriate minimum standards after consulting with everybody involved,” he said.
“I think it’s a pretty robust, fair process that is not going to lead to an outcome anything like what Uber is suggesting.”
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