Food Delivery Drivers Australia

Food delivery drivers are a unique sector of Australia’s employment landscape. With the way the world is today; there is an increasing need for businesses like Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodora. These organisation hire drivers to perform food deliveries for them; but does that mean these drivers are employees or independent contractors? Part 2-5 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) as well as common law helps to determine weather a person is an employee of independent contractor. The classification of these citizens has implication on who bears responsibility under various regulatory frameworks such as taxation, insurance and superannuation. Whilst the Fair Work Act 2009 does not define an employee; as this is presumed to be known,

Characterising drivers as independent contractors removes regulatory framework and system of employee rights. Allowing these firms to pay considerable less remuneration per hour; as only employees are entitled to minimum wages, overtime, leave, superannuation, termination pay, workers compensation and collective bargaining. Businesses have been taking advantage of drivers, which has allowed them to develop an industry market worth $600 million, and if this trend continues and nothing changes this is expected to increase to $2.4 billion by the year 2025. Something needs to be done something needs to change. The world is changing and our employment law standards need to change with it . The high courts decision in 2001 was a start but since then our fast paced world has out thought our aging employment laws. By looking at the cold hard facts it is clear that delivery drivers of food delivery companies like Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodara are employees; these large multination companies have once again taken advantage of the average Australian in order to make profits and keep shareholders

It is now time for Australia to have a class action and for our employment system to correctly define these drivers as employees. Moreover the Fair Work act 2009 (Cth) does seek to protect genuine employees from sham contracting by making it unlawful for a person or a company, to misrepresent that a contract of employment is an independent contractor agreement. Thus if in the future the Australian legal system finds these food delivery companies have been sham contracting driver then there will be penalties handed down and the issue resolve. The new age of gig economy; which “gets its name from each piece of work being akin to an individual ‘gig” although, such work can fall under multiple names,” could go down the path of classifying workers who work in the gig economy as dependent contractors. Reseach director in the future of work at UTS Business School associate professor Sarah Kaine believes using the term ‘dependent contractors’ “is a step in the right direction” as this “concept has been around in our road transport sector for a long time, where a driver buys a truck but may only have one