At today’s NSW Senate inquiry hearing into the gig economy an historic decision was made by Menulog to trial the reclassification of all workers in Sydney as employees instead of independent contractors.
This decision will guarantee that Menulog workers have the same rights as all other Australian employees such as minimum hourly payment and minimum rights such as annual and sick leave, superannuation contribution and workers’ compensation.
App based corporations have denied workers basic rights for years constantly reorganising their business to avoid workplace laws.
Australia currently lags behind other countries in terms of delivery workers’ rights, including the UK who recently ruled that Uber classify drivers as employees.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
“If Menulog moves to make this more than a trial we will be calling on all Australians to ditch other delivery apps and only use Menulog, and any other companies who join them. People will be able to benefit from the convenience without also buying exploitation.
“We congratulate Menulog for taking the step to finally accept their workers should have equal rights to all other Australian workers.
“So called gig-economy corporations have benefitted from unfair competition, undercutting and undermining not just workers’ rights but local businesses that do the right thing. This has to stop. The Federal Government needs to act to bring in a level playing field and stop letting these corporations get away with Australian workers”.
