As their customers dined on pizzas and burritos,the three contractors rode long hours without the normal Australian employment standards generations fought so hard for:sick leave,workers compensation,the right to challenge an unfair sacking,training or proper protective gear.
The three men were killed in separate road crashes last month:Dede Fredy and Xiaojun Chen on Sydney streets,Chow Khai Shien in Melbourne's CBD. Their companies were not even required to provide insurance for their riders.
Like many engaged in the gig economy,Dede,Xiaojun and Chow were temporary migrants. Perhaps this is what makes it easier for us to turn a blind eye to their exploitation.
This is not morally sustainable. Australia cannot abide the existence of a secondary labour market,without rights,minimum pay rates,superannuation or injury insurance. Soon enough the wrecking ball of gig work will crash into other industries,turning fully fledged jobs into cut-price parcels of work.
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Platforms such as Airtasker have tried to fray all manner of jobs into gigs,under the camouflage of connecting consumers and providers for"odd jobs". Uber has laid waste to the taxi industry,and now Amazon Flex is encroaching on the work of couriers. Uber Freight and Amazon’s freight brokerage are expanding into the trucking sector in the US and elsewhere,pulling rates right down. There are concerted attempts to expand gig economy work into aged and disability care.
Independent contracting is the Trojan horse making this exploitation possible. This category of work has exploded over the past decade and now accounts for more than a million Australian workers.
Of course,this contracting is not really''independent''. The notion conjures an in-demand tradesperson or professional who can negotiate a decent return based on demand for their labour. But in the world of food delivery,there is no negotiation. The worker is told what they will be paid by an algorithm,and their work is assessed by a star rating. There is no negotiation,no input from the worker and no right of appeal. It is a system of take it or leave it. And it results in pay rates well below the minimum wage.