tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/airtasker-8535/articlesAirtasker – The Conversation2022-03-11T05:05:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1779102022-03-11T05:05:01Z2022-03-11T05:05:01ZUncertainty, money worries and stress – gig workers need support and effective ways to cope<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451504/original/file-20220311-25-1fm2egb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=234%2C49%2C8008%2C5438&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/food-delivery-moto-scooter-driver-600w-1730162416.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This weekend, you might hit “place order” for a meal delivery. Or jump in a ride share to meet friends. In both cases, you’ll be engaging a gig worker.</p>
<p>“Gig worker” is a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0259035">term</a> that generally refers to people who get work through smartphone apps – think Uber, Ola, AirTasker, Snappr, and others.</p>
<p>Approximately 250,000 Australians are <a href="https://actuaries.asn.au/Library/Opinion/2020/GPGIGECONOMYWEBtest.pdf">part of the gig economy</a> – including many who consider it a “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783319894060">side hustle</a>” on top of a regular job.</p>
<p>While gig work might be a good way to make some extra cash, our <a href="https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/indhealth/advpub/0/advpub_2021-0217/_article">new research</a> based on a survey of Australian gig workers, found they tend to be more stressed than other types of workers. </p>
<p>We also looked at coping strategies to try and find out how these workers could look after themselves better.</p>
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Read more:
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<h2>Gig work is uncertain work</h2>
<p>There are some key things that define gig work and can make it more stressful.</p>
<p>Gig work is generally <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783319894060">unpredictable</a> – you usually don’t know when the next gig is going to come. That means you’ll likely experience uncertainty – both around your <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122418823184">time</a> and your money – which can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122418823184">cause stress</a>.</p>
<p>Our online survey of 49 gig workers found they reported higher levels of stress than the general population – regardless of the number of platforms or employers they worked for.</p>
<p>Participants were also more likely to be stressed if they worked fewer hours each week or earned under $20,000 each year. A recent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07308884211024711">Canadian study</a> also found gig workers felt powerless and that financial strain contributed to increased stress.</p>
<p>We found having a higher level of education (such a university degree or postgraduate qualification) was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122418823184">associated with increased stress</a> in gig workers. This might be the case for people doing gig work to pay the bills while searching for a job in their chosen field, such as university students or people who’ve come to live in Australia from overseas. </p>
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<h2>Making things better</h2>
<p>We looked at how gig workers might better manage stress and what coping strategies might be the most helpful.</p>
<p>The most effective methods were emotional support (from family, friends, or other gig workers), planning, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1085">active coping strategies</a> that consider challenges then draw on available resources to seek help and find solutions to overcome them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3035563/">Avoidant strategies</a> (disengagement, denial, venting) increased stress for the people in our study. These findings echo those reported by people who have highly stressful jobs, including <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20500651/">intensive care nurses</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23580901">student teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, some coping strategies that seem to be helpful for other groups of people aren’t as helpful for gig workers. For example, trying to understand a stressful situation better, positive reframing, and acceptance are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5923620/">effective for police officers</a>, but don’t have the same benefits for gig workers.</p>
<p>This might be because the stressors faced by gig workers are intrinsic to their work characteristics (uncertainty, low incomes, unpredictable work hours) rather than the content of the work they need to do during a shift.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="person holds phone with uber app on it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451503/original/file-20220311-27-2eaoc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protecting ‘down time’ might help gig workers feel less stressed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1579667410546-f7079afa0601?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1770&q=80">Unsplash/Priscilla du Preez</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-deal-for-uber-drivers-in-uk-but-australias-gig-workers-must-wait-157597">A new deal for Uber drivers in UK, but Australia's ‘gig workers' must wait</a>
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<h2>So, what does this mean for Australian gig workers?</h2>
<p>While we might not be able to change the nature of these working arrangements (yet), we can recommend certain strategies to help manage stress. </p>
<p>Getting support from family and friends is likely to be helpful, as is making a plan for finances and work time as much as possible. For some people, this might be deciding in advance when to “log on” and make themselves available for gigs, while also marking out some dedicated time off each week. </p>
<p>On the other hand, gig workers should try not to use avoidant strategies, such as trying to ignore the stressful issue, withdrawing from social activities, or seeking distracting risk-taking behaviours. Rather, they should try to take an active role in managing problems as they come up.</p>
<p>Despite the increase in Australians doing various kinds of gig work, there is still a lot we don’t know. This is a new area of research and data is difficult to collect with such a wide range of people involved who don’t congregate in any one workplace. </p>
<p>Despite the challenges, it is critical policies (as well as psychological support services) consider the potential impact of precarious, unstable working arrangements on the stress and mental well-being of workers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stop-workers-being-exploited-in-the-gig-economy-103673">How to stop workers being exploited in the gig economy</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gig workers are more stressed than other types of workers. Two experts explain coping strategies that are likely to help, and which to avoid.Madeline Sprajcer, Lecturer in Psychology, CQUniversity AustraliaCharlotte Gupta, Postdoctoral research fellow, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665562021-08-27T02:27:01Z2021-08-27T02:27:01ZColes and Woolworths are moving to robot warehouses and on-demand labour as home deliveries soar<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418178/original/file-20210827-17674-1vu1zes.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C3%2C2367%2C1591&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Woolworths</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As lockdowns continue across Australia, many households are doing something they may not have considered just 18 months ago: ordering groceries online. </p>
<p>Australia’s supermarket duopoly, Coles and Woolworths, have raced to implement new technology and transform labour arrangements to keep up with <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/woolworths-takes-lion-s-share-in-online-groceries-20200708-p55a9a">the e-grocery boom</a>.</p>
<p>Both are investing in “smart” warehousing and distribution systems with various degrees of automation, as well as making extensive use of app-driven gig workers for grocery picking and delivery via platforms such as Uber and Airtasker.</p>
<p>My research suggests a reimagining of the Australian supermarket is currently underway. And where Coles and Woolworths go, others will follow: the pair are Australia’s largest private-sector employers, and their current moves seem likely to speed up the trend towards on-demand and precarious labour.</p>
<h2>Teaming up with big tech</h2>
<p>When the pandemic hit Australia in March 2020, Coles and Woolworths were quickly overwhelmed. Unprecedented demand for home delivery caused massive <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/grocery-deliveries-delayed-as-online-shopping-soars-20200309-p5483v">delays</a>, and online services were paused for five weeks to prioritise shoppers with special needs. </p>
<p>Both supermarket giants have since partnered with food delivery platforms to solve the “last mile” problem of home delivery using a precarious, on-demand network of delivery drivers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-boosting-the-big-tech-transformation-to-warp-speed-138537">The coronavirus pandemic is boosting the big tech transformation to warp speed</a>
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<p>This week <a href="https://insideretail.com.au/business/woolworths-partners-with-uber-to-bring-groceries-to-your-door-202108">Woolworths formalised a deal with Uber</a>, trialled in 2020, to provide one-hour delivery from selected Metro stores in Sydney and Melbourne. Woolworths staff will pick and pack the order and hand it off to an Uber driver. These drivers, and on-demand couriers <a href="https://mhdsupplychain.com.au/2020/04/22/coles-and-woolworths-return-to-normal-home-delivery-services/">Sherpa and Drive Yello</a>, are already delivering to thousands of Woolworths customers every week.</p>
<p>For Coles, partnerships with the on-demand economy predate the pandemic and have only grown more important. In 2017, <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/coles/">Coles quietly teamed up with Airtasker</a>, encouraging shoppers to put their grocery list up for auction and have gig workers bid each other down to win the job. </p>
<p>Coles also released a “<a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/coles-quietly-expands-uber-eats-deliveries-to-essentials-like-bread-milk-netflix-522212">Netflix and Chill essentials</a>” range for delivery via UberEats in 2019, spanning ice cream, biscuits and other snacks. These partnerships suggest a strategy for restructuring labour relations was already under way before the pandemic. </p>
<h2>The supermarket personal shopper</h2>
<p>Inside the supermarket a growing number of “personal shoppers” can be found picking and packing orders for home delivery. </p>
<p>Some are employed by Coles or Woolworths, and they wheel around a multi-tiered workstation complete with scanner gun, measuring scales, and touch screen. Software determines the most efficient way to pick multiple orders at once and dictates the worker’s route through the store, which items to pick, what bag to put them in, and how long it should take. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-algorithmic-management-makes-work-more-stressful-and-less-satisfying-166030">3 ways 'algorithmic management' makes work more stressful and less satisfying</a>
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<p>Other “personal shopping” is done by plain-clothed gig workers, perhaps working through Airtasker on their mobile phone, who are indistinguishable from other shoppers. </p>
<h2>Global tech companies shake up the warehouse</h2>
<p>Demand for online grocery shopping has also accelerated Coles and Woolworths’ development of fully or semi-automated warehouses coordinated by “smart” management systems. Both supermarkets are working with global tech companies to develop <a href="https://mhdsupplychain.com.au/2020/02/17/coles-and-woolworths-introduce-highly-automated-fulfilment-centres/">billion-dollar, state-of-the-art warehouses</a>, with some scheduled to open as soon as next year. </p>
<p>With UK software and robotics company Ocado, Coles is developing two data-driven “customer fulfillment centres” in Melbourne and Sydney, scheduled to open in 2022. Autonomous picking robots will retrieve items for human workers who, for now, are better able to scan goods and pack them for delivery. </p>
<p>The system is underpinned by the <a href="https://mhdsupplychain.com.au/2019/03/26/coles-partners-with-ocado-to-introduce-robot-driven-grocery-platform/">Ocado Smart Platform</a>: end-to-end software, apps and technology to manage online grocery demand. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418168/original/file-20210827-6524-1gd0n4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ocado’s army of picking robots delivers items to human workers for scanning and packing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ocado</span></span>
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<p>Woolworths is pursuing a slightly different strategy of “<a href="https://mhdsupplychain.com.au/2020/10/08/woolworths-rolls-out-us-micro-fulfilment-technology-in-melbourne/">micro-fulfillment</a>”, which involves smaller and more centrally located warehouses for faster home delivery. </p>
<p>These are hybrid warehouse-supermarket facilities developed by US company Takeoff Technologies. They cannibalise floor space in a retail store to incorporate a small warehouse with vertical racking, automation, and picking robots. As in the Ocado model, the robots retrieve items for workers to pack and deliver. </p>
<p>Two of these facilities are already up and running, with the second <a href="https://insideretail.com.au/sectors/woolworths-commissions-dark-estore-in-maroochydore-202108">opening this week</a> on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. </p>
<h2>Traditional warehouses begin to close</h2>
<p>These are just two of the new automated systems designed to replace traditional warehouses. The closure of existing warehouses will result in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-23/woolworths-automation-will-eliminate-700-jobs/12385292">the loss of thousands of (mainly unionised) jobs</a>. It is currently unclear if retrenched workers will be redeployed to automated sites, which will still require large numbers of workers to function. </p>
<p>Recent research led by sociologist Tom Barnes found that when unionised warehouse workers are retrenched due to automation, they are likely to continue working in warehousing, but in <a href="https://www.unitedworkers.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Automation-Job-Loss-Insecure-Work-report-UWU-and-ACU.pdf">more insecure arrangements and for less pay</a>. Put simply, when unionised jobs are lost, they are not recreated elsewhere. </p>
<h2>The hidden labour of grocery home delivery</h2>
<p>Online grocery shopping is promoted as an important measure for limiting contact between people and reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, this highlights the question of who gets to stay home and who continues to work, potentially putting themselves at risk. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/pandemic-exposes-stark-divide-between-suburbs-facing-covid-19-exposure-20210823-p58law.html">Mapping of exposure sites across suburbs</a> shows clear class divides between those who can work from home and order in, and those who cannot. Last year, as much as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/workplace-coronavirus-transmission-in-victoria-in-aged-care/12470704">80% of COVID-19 transmission</a> in Victoria took place in insecure workplaces among precarious workers. </p>
<p>On-demand labour services require a stratified and unequal labour force, whereby some families outsource domestic labour to others. This outsourcing may provide an overall benefit, but it depends on workers who have been denied secure work or government assistance. By necessity, these people do the work deemed too risky by others. </p>
<h2>The smart supermarket of tomorrow</h2>
<p>Advances in technology and automation are not wiping out supermarket jobs but changing them. Fantasies of “lights-out” fully automated warehouses and <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-drone-delivery-prime-air">drone deliveries</a> are unlikely to become reality when a growing pool of precarious workers are available to do the work.</p>
<p>Coles and Woolworths are not straightforwardly outsourcing labour to the on-demand economy. Instead, they are bringing multiple forms of labour into their distribution networks. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/6-challenges-of-being-a-gig-worker-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-164446">6 challenges of being a gig worker during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<p>Precarious workers and the more securely employed (often members of unions) work side by side in the complex labour process of grocery home delivery. Coles and Woolworths can shift risk and responsibility onto gig workers when needed, while maintaining control of the entire distribution network. This ability to outsource risk and keep control is not a new high-tech development, but a fixture of capitalist labour relations. </p>
<p>Partnerships with the on-demand economy and global tech companies suggest a reimagining of the Australian supermarket is currently underway. Although the supermarket may appear fixed and banal, it is an important social institution which is always changing and being renegotiated. </p>
<p>What will these changes mean for Coles and Woolworths, and for the rest of us? In the absence of organised labour resistance or government intervention, the trend towards an on-demand and precarious workforce seems likely to continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Kelly receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on which this article is based.
Lauren Kelly works with United Workers Union which has members in the supermarket supply chain. </span></em></p>The pandemic home-delivery boom is driving a push to automation and precarious work by Australian supermarkets.Lauren Kate Kelly, PhD Candidate, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1344062020-03-29T19:12:27Z2020-03-29T19:12:27ZDelivery workers are now essential. They deserve the rights of other employees<p>Along with home delivery of <a href="https://insidefmcg.com.au/2020/03/26/woolworths-boosts-online-deliveries-through-41-priority-hubs/">groceries</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-to-access-the-medicines-you-and-your-family-need-134231">pharmaceuticals</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/alcohol-australia-coronavirus-2020-3">alcohol</a>, demand for food delivery is booming. </p>
<p>Services such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo have become essential to cafes and restaurants that can now only sell takeaway food. </p>
<p>It is good news for the likes of Uber, whose stock price has risen since it announced a ten-fold increase in the number of restaurants signing themselves up to <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/uber-eats-growth-coronavirus-delivery-140101683.html">Uber Eats</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s a situation that has provoked serious questions. Not only about whether delivery services are safe, but <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/godforbid/the-covid-19-conundrum/12095750">whether it’s ethical to use them</a>.</p>
<p>Digital platforms like Uber Eats and Menulog are not, after all, ideal employers. In fact, they don’t regard themselves as employers at all, merely facilitators of work by “independent contractors”. </p>
<p>Food delivery drivers and riders often work for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/20/food-delivery-bike-couriers-in-australia-being-underpaid-by-up-to-322-a-week">less than the minimum wage</a>, and have no employee rights such as sick leave.</p>
<p>Now we are collectively relying on them to provide an essential service during social distancing, we need to ask what, as a society, we owe these workers in return.</p>
<h2>Vulnerable to exploitation</h2>
<p>We’re interested in how this economic crisis affects food delivery drivers and riders due to our research into the experience of migrant gig workers.</p>
<p>Our research has found migrants are already “socially distanced”, without deep networks of family or friends. They are vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination. </p>
<p>Most food delivery work is done by migrants, through third-party digital platforms like Uber Eats and Menulog. The platforms treat drivers and riders as independent contractors, not employees with the protections and rights of employees.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/redefining-workers-in-the-platform-economy-lessons-from-the-foodora-bunfight-107369">Redefining workers in the platform economy: lessons from the Foodora bunfight</a>
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<p>A 2019 survey <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/revealing-the-true-size-of-australias-gig-workforce/">commissioned by the Victorian government</a> suggested about 7% of the workforce used digital platforms to get gig work, the most common being Airtasker (35%), Uber (23%), Freelancer (12%), Uber Eats (11%) and Deliveroo (8%). </p>
<p>Previous research suggests <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-they-manipulate-people-is-really-saddening-study-shows-the-trade-offs-in-gig-work-79042">many choose gig work</a> simply because it is better than other forms of low-paid work.</p>
<p>Now food delivery workers face pressure from those displaced from such jobs in hospitality or retail. Complicating the situation is the lack of clarity about whether those on temporary work visas are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/22/what-australias-189bn-coronavirus-economic-rescue-package-means-for-you">eligible for income support</a> announced for other workers.</p>
<p>Platforms don’t owe gig workers a minimum wage so can sign up as many “independent contractors” as they like. This improves the service for customers, and increases profit for the platform, but means individual deliverers make less money.</p>
<h2>Increased health risks</h2>
<p>Many delivery services are <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/coronavirus-australia-uber-eats-deliveroo-drive-thru_au_5e71a846c5b63c3b6486e11a">implementing contactless delivery</a> procedures. But the lack of defined employer responsibility in the platform economy means patchy attention to the extra physical and mental health risks gig workers now face. </p>
<p>Unions and others have urged delivery platforms <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-03-06/gig-economy-workers-uber-deliveroo-ola-coronavirus-outbreak/12022072">to provide protective equipment</a> such as gloves, face masks and sanitisers. Responses from platforms have been limited. </p>
<p>This was Uber Eats’ response on March 17, by its regional general manager for the Asia Pacific, <a href="https://www.uber.com/en-AU/newsroom/covid19aus/">Jodie Auster</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Our plan to address challenges born by COVID-19 includes making A$5 million in funding available for independent restaurants across Australia and New Zealand. The multi-million dollar fund will allow restaurants to deploy promotions to attract customers and will help restaurants time promotions to suit their individual business needs. </p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>What Auster didn’t mention was a plan to issue safety gear, though she did note the company had started a campaign “reminding Uber Eats users that they can request deliveries be left on their doorsteps”.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, delivery workers are scared <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/union-seeking-protections-for-delivery-drivers/12094366">they will catch the coronavirus</a>.</p>
<p>Uber says it will financially assist drivers and riders “diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine by a public health authority” for a period of <a href="https://www.uber.com/en-AU/newsroom/covid19aus/">up to 14 days</a>. </p>
<p>But what if a worker with viral symptoms wants to self-isolate as a precaution? There’s no sick leave or workers compensation, and they risk “deactivation” if work isn’t accepted.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/workers-compensation-doesnt-cover-gig-workers-heres-a-way-to-protect-them-99946">Workers' compensation doesn't cover gig workers – here's a way to protect them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Legal protection</h2>
<p>Social distancing measures mean the delivery economy and the health of the general population are now intimately linked.</p>
<p>To secure and safeguard this now essential service, it is time the law ensured gig workers have the same legal rights and protections as other employees.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stop-workers-being-exploited-in-the-gig-economy-103673">How to stop workers being exploited in the gig economy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We need the delivery drivers coming to our doors to be healthy. That health depends on their safety as well as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/food-ordering-safe-ethical-coronavirus-with-seamless-uber-eats-should-i-get-takeaway">economic and social inclusion</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Riordan receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Pryor, Gerhard Hoffstaedter, and Richard Robinson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Food delivery workers are now essential workers. But they’re still not treated as employees.Tyler Riordan, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandGerhard Hoffstaedter, Associate professor, The University of QueenslandRichard Robinson, Research Fellow/Hospitality Management, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/801462017-07-06T20:17:26Z2017-07-06T20:17:26ZForget cash: geocaching shows there are other ways to create value online<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176515/original/file-20170702-8214-9l8jvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Geocaching players move treasures all over the world, creating value for themselves and other players.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/martyn404/5557562159">Martyn Wright 2011</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although we focus on the financial health of online networks, there are other ways to create value in digital spaces.</p>
<p>Take <a href="https://theconversation.com/gig-economy-businesses-like-uber-and-airtasker-need-to-evolve-to-survive-79199">controversial companies</a> like Uber, Airbnb and Airtasker, which are heralded as the poster children of the so-called sharing economy. By focusing on money changing hands, they miss the chance to help users collaboratively share other kinds of value that don’t have a price tag. </p>
<p>On Airbnb, users often undertake actions that don’t create immediate economic benefit: meeting guests, giving gifts, or helping with travel advice. But these actions aren’t captured by the platform beyond the review section.</p>
<p>To better understand how non-economic value creation works, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/43/4/509/2630502/The-Systemic-Creation-of-Value-Through-Circulation?redirectedFrom=fulltext">we examined</a> the global treasure-hunting game known as geocaching. </p>
<p>In the game, network members can generate non-financial value from connecting socially or being well regarded by others. They can also gain value from feeling a sense of adventure or acquiring knowledge.</p>
<p>Despite having different locations, culture and social capital, members of such collaborative networks can come together for common goals.</p>
<h2>What can geo-caching teach us about value?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.geocaching.com/press/faq.aspx">Geocaching</a> claims to have millions of players or “geocachers” who hunt for more than 2.8 million treasures (“geocaches”) hidden all over the world.</p>
<p>The game involves creating and exchanging “travel bugs”. These are objects as innocuous as an old whistle or a teddy bear that carry identification tags and are assigned goals by their creators. Geocachers collaborate to help the travel bug move from one cache to another.</p>
<p>We found that individual geocachers are part of a systemic process of value creation. </p>
<p>How does this work? Individual actions, such as a geocacher hiding or finding a geocache, are registered and stored in the form of blog posts, photographs, comments and reviews. When other participants see these registrations (sometimes years later or while living on other continents), they continue yielding value, because others recognise the benefits of these actions to members of the geocaching network. </p>
<p>The key feature of its collaborative network is that the value of one action gets stored with the value of other actions, and becomes redistributed to other participants.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qcG1VxTRk5Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Examples of geocaching homemade video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, when a geocacher reads some posts and learns about the adventures of <a href="https://www.geocaching.com/blog/category/trackable-items/travel-bugs/">objects moved from cache to cache by other geocachers</a>, they gain knowledge, a sense of adventure and connection to others in the network. The network stores and redistributes the value outcomes of actions performed by its members.</p>
<p>To an outsider, geocaching might seem like just a hobby, but these activities are extremely valuable to participants. While each action alone means very little, the totality of actions can move a worthless toy across the globe and <a href="https://www.space.com/23486-space-station-astronaut-takes-travel-bug.html">even to space</a>. What is valuable are the collaborative, often peripheral actions that make this movement happen. </p>
<p>Other platforms, like Couchsurfing, can also store different types of value. Everyday actions performed by users and captured by Couchsurfing include those linked to non-economic value, such as the guests cooking a meal, or hosts giving insights into their home country. </p>
<h2>What can other networks learn?</h2>
<p>When compared to geocaching, companies like Uber, Airbnb and Airtasker are not fulfilling their potential for creating systemic value. </p>
<p>The platforms don’t completely capture other forms of value creation. These are the collaborative and often peripheral actions that help the system move, like a particularly friendly Uber driver or an Airbnb host who offers useful travel advice.</p>
<p>Although Airbnb has member reviews, it’s up to users whether they mention other forms of value. Airtasker reviews are about services provided, and Uber focuses on ratings. </p>
<p>To capture additional value, these companies should create additional ways for participants to register these other actions. What amazing stories have you discovered from talking to your Uber driver? Have you brought a gift for your Airbnb host? What have you learned from your Airtasker helper? </p>
<p>Questions like these would allow the systemic accumulation of other types of value, which not only enrich the network, but encourage other participants to engage in similar actions.</p>
<p>Like geocachers, platforms in the sharing economy will benefit from embracing sharing in its deepest meanings. Only then will users become participants of a true collaborative culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The online game of geocaching shows there are ways to create value online that are not purely financial.Bernardo Figueiredo, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, RMIT UniversityDaiane Scaraboto, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Universidad Católica de ChileNancy Mills, Postgrad student and freelance writer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769432017-05-02T20:35:24Z2017-05-02T20:35:24ZAll care and no responsibility: why Airtasker can’t guarantee a minimum wage<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/airtasker-and-unions-make-landmark-agreement-to-improve-pay-rates-and-conditions-20170427-gvtvpo.html">The agreement</a> between Unions NSW and gig economy platform Airtasker doesn’t go far enough to ensure minimum wages or working conditions.</p>
<p>Airtasker isn’t setting a minimum wage or working conditions on its platform. Rather, it is “recommending” them to users. Airtasker’s business model makes it unlikely this will happen. And the lack of a union base in the gig economy will make it hard to monitor or improve these conditions.</p>
<p>Airtasker is an online marketplace where users post tasks - like building Ikea shelves or handing out leaflets, and other users bid to do the work.</p>
<p>Under the agreement, all recommended rates of pay on Airtasker will be above the comparative <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/awards/list-of-awards">award rates</a>. In response to our questions, Airtasker CEO Tim Fung said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We’ve updated our price guide to reflect award wages (or higher) as advised by Unions NSW. The Airtasker price guide is visible in multiple touch points, including when posting a task.</p>
<p>We don’t enforce or restrict the price of tasks. In any case, given the diversity of jobs on the platform and the fact that the vast majority of jobs created are new categories (not just traditional jobs) this would not be possible. That said, education in relation to what’s a "fair amount” to pay is great for our community.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>You can read Tim Fung’s full response <a href="http://theconversation.com/full-response-from-airtasker-ceo-tim-fung-77009">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Airtasker will also introduce a dispute resolution process that is overseen by the Fair Work Commission, a personal insurance policy for those accepting work through the platform, and will work with Unions NSW to ensure "best practice workplace health and safety standards in place to protect workers and consumers using the platform”.</p>
<h2>Implementation challenges</h2>
<p>Airtasker’s business model is based on workers “bidding” for work. As they can only “win” a job by submitting the lowest bid, workers are pitted against each other in a reverse auction. This system seems directly opposed to creating a minimum wage.</p>
<p>Tellingly, the headline on the <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/price-guide/">Task Price Guide</a> on Airtasker’s website states: “Wondering what it will cost to get your task done? There’s no right or wrong answer”. The strongest wording on rates says: “As a guide, we’ve listed out below approximate hourly rates for a range of task types”. </p>
<p>This could be viewed as an example of “all care but no responsibility”, and may in fact explain why it was prepared to agree to the Unions NSW deal. </p>
<p>In the ongoing Senate Inquiry into Corporate Avoidance of the Fair Work Act, Airtasker’s CEO Tim Fung <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommsen%2F4623c4ec-e5b7-45b4-8f17-b59865a95336%2F0001;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=Dataset%3AcomSen,estimate;rec=5;resCount=Default">explained</a> that the platform operated on the basis that those who accept work through its platform (“bidders”) engage in “independent contracting” for the person who posted the job through Airtasker. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-us-ruling-on-uber-drivers-could-disrupt-the-disrupters-43459">As in many other places in the gig economy</a> it is in the classification of “independent contractor” that the devil lies. Independent contractors aren’t employees, and so do not have a minimum wage or many of the other benefits of being an employee.</p>
<p>So it is not Airtasker that is “paying” the wages, or providing the workplace, to those that find work through its platform. It might “recommend” pay rates that are above the award wage in its price guide, but Airtasker’s very model means it cannot ensure those rates are paid.</p>
<p>The voluntary nature of the agreement will make it hard to enforce, perhaps undermining the efforts of Unions NSW to improve conditions for those working in non-standard employment. </p>
<h2>Work standards for a new economy</h2>
<p>How to respond to work in the new economy is a question that the labour movement is yet to resolve, though the Unions NSW/Airtasker deal at least marks an interesting attempt. </p>
<p>Information from the actual workers <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rego.12122/full">is often key</a> to detecting non-compliance with labour standards. That highlights a significant question for unions – in a regulatory system which has not kept pace with changes in the labour market, and at a time of <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=UN_DEN">declining membership</a>, how do they improve or simply maintain fair labour standards? </p>
<p>While Unions NSW has been proactive in pursuing an agreement, in an effort to maintain relevance in the digital economy, the lack of union members in sectors such as the gig economy is an impediment as information from the “shop floor” is often key to detecting non-compliance with labour standards and the basis for pursuing improvements.</p>
<p>Another issue is determining desired outcomes. Similar attempts to lift conditions in the gig economy have failed elsewhere. In the US, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) attempted a similar arrangement with Airbnb. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/airbnb-is-forming-an-alliance-with-one-of-the-nations-biggest-labor-unions/?utm_term=.42c37634178c">The deal</a> would have seen Airbnb hosts encouraged, but not mandated, to pay cleaners a minimum rate. </p>
<p>The SEIU deal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/18/airbnb-seiu-backlash-labor-union-deal-new-york-california">fell apart</a> after other unions opposed it. They were worried about legitimising the Airbnb business model and making housing more unaffordable.</p>
<p>But in the end it comes back to the platforms themselves. The question for Airtasker, Airbnb or any other platform is; if they are serious about improving the wages and conditions of the workers who use their platforms (and who are the source of their revenue), why don’t they monitor users/hosts/consumers and exclude those who refuse to offer at least the minimum rates or conditions?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Kaine is a member of the NTEU</span></em></p>The business models of the gig economy often stand in the way of implementing minimum wages or conditions.Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/587362016-05-12T20:05:46Z2016-05-12T20:05:46ZWhy the death of employment is a dead idea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122220/original/image-20160512-18135-1meobxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rise of subcontracting and franchises has allowed employers to enjoy the profits without the responsibility.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government has proposed that the “<a href="http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/workplace/2016/04/26/govt-makes-future-of-work-ir-battleground-for-election/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WorkplaceRelations+%28Workplace+Insight%29">future of work</a>” be the main industrial relations battleground in the election. </p>
<p>The current system, it says, is “stuck in the past” and has not kept up with fundamentally different ways of doing business, as represented by “disruptors” such as <a href="https://get.uber.com/cl/aus-lite/?utm_source=AdWords_Brand&utm_campaign=search-google-brand_10_39_au-melbourne_d_txt_acq_cpc_en-au_uber%20melbourne_kwd-58734377751_93487707405_20989842645_e_c_track-jan20generalupdate_restructure&utm_medium=kenid__kenshoo_clickid_&cid=340099725&adg_id=20989842645&fi_id&match=e&net=g&dev=c&dev_m&cre=93487707405&kwid=kwd-58734377751&kw=uber%20melbourne&placement&tar&gclid=CMnVnoiy08wCFYGavAod53YAUQ&gclsrc=aw.ds">Uber</a> and <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/?campaign=237539128&adgroup=12421578808&keyword=airtasker&gclid=COvSnfSx08wCFQt_vQodfCQJhQ">Airtasker</a>. </p>
<p>The government plans (though we don’t yet know how) to remove “<a href="http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/workplace/2016/04/26/govt-makes-future-of-work-ir-battleground-for-election/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WorkplaceRelations+%28Workplace+Insight%29">disincentives to employment</a>” and promote “flexibility” (a <a href="https://theconversation.com/workplace-flexibility-on-insecure-ground-22005">word of many meanings</a>). New workers “<a href="http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/workplace/2016/04/26/govt-makes-future-of-work-ir-battleground-for-election/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WorkplaceRelations+%28Workplace+Insight%29">don’t know what 9-5 means</a>” but “they do know … what 24/7 means”. However, the government says, we will “always have a strong safety net”. </p>
<p>Yet despite all the predictions of the “death of employment” (including a <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3507210">book by that title</a> a few years ago), it has not happened and will not happen. Like the related <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/22/the-rise-in-independent-contracting-is-a-myth/">myth of the surge of independent contracting</a>, it is a zombie idea that won’t quite die. </p>
<h2>Employment lives – but hierarchical contracting grows</h2>
<p>Employment is still the most efficient way for capital to exert control over labour. Over the past two decades, the proportion of employed persons who are employees in their main job has not declined. In fact, it has increased slightly, from 79% in 1992 to 82.7% in 2014. This chart shows those trends.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120870/original/image-20160502-19554-x2k2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employees and owner-managers of enterprises (incorporated + unincorporated) in their main job, as a proportion of employed persons, 1992-2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABS Cat No 6105.0 Table 2, 2013 and ABS Cat 6333.0 Tables 1.1 and 16.1.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sure, many firms are moving away from direct employment of many of their employees to a “hierarchical contracting” model, in which many functions previously done in-house are contracted out. But they typically contract to others who in turn hire employees (or who subcontract to others, who in turn hire employees).</p>
<p>For example, in mining, direct employment by mines has been partly replaced by many people working as “contractors” – but those contractors are, in turn, employees of the contracting firm. They work on the mine site, but are employees – hired on a casual basis and at much lower cost to the mines.</p>
<p>Likewise, franchising is a way by which the owners of capital (at the top or peak of the hierarchy) contract out to “franchisees” who run the outlets (fast food, retail, whatever) rather that the large firms running them themselves. But most of the people who work in the outlets are employees – now of the franchisees, rather than the capital at the top of the hierarchy. </p>
<p>The franchisors still control the product, but franchisees have responsibility for employment. The franchisees are also small businesses – less likely to <a href="http://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/Weil.Final%20Report%202012.pdf">comply with labour regulations</a> than large firms – so the franchisors gain the financial benefit from franchisees’ low-cost way of operating.</p>
<p>It’s a great way of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-franchises-care-more-about-their-coffee-than-their-people-46948">avoiding accountability</a>. For example, in the recent <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/08/30/4301164.htm">7-Eleven scandal</a>, many franchisees will rightly be <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media-releases/2016-media-releases/may-2016/20160502-amritsaria-penalty">prosecuted</a> – but they weren’t making great profits. The money was made by those at the top. And they appear immune from prosecution. They might even <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-11/7eleven-underpaid-workers-alan-fels/7405968">avoid full compensation</a> for stolen wages. </p>
<p>In the meantime, the two major owners of 7-Eleven last year, between them, <a href="http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/7eleven-boss-russ-withers-buys-new-private-jet-20150929-gjxifn">bought a private jet</a> and <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/7eleven-supremo-beverley-barlow-buys-20-million-recordsmashing-brighton-mansion-20150529-ghbdr7/">paid a record amount for a mansion</a> in Melbourne. One of them <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-30/7-eleven-chairman-resigns/6816808">had to resign as chair</a>, but won’t be losing his private jet over the scandal.</p>
<p>Franchising <em>has</em> been growing: the number of franchise business units increased by 80% between 1998 and 2014 (see chart). Franchise employees went from <a href="https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wh1.thewebconsole.com/wh/1401/images/FranchisingAustralia2014_webversion.pdf">4.3% to 4.8%</a> of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6333.0August%202014?OpenDocument">employees</a> just between 2012 and 2014. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120873/original/image-20160502-19535-nlr3dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of business format franchise units, 1998-2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lorelle Frazer, Scott Weaven and Anthony Grace, Franchising Australia 2014, Griffith University.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The employment paradox</h2>
<p>So there’s a paradox – the rise of new models like Uber, and the continuing importance of employment – but that is explained by the ongoing efficiency of employment as a means to control worker behaviour, alongside the ongoing urge of capital to cut costs. </p>
<p>The employment contract is open-ended, and it is impossible to put into it every aspect of what an employee must do. That problem is multiplied many times over when you move from an employment contract to a contract for service. </p>
<p>Contracting is a way of reducing costs, increasing profits and avoiding accountability, but it is not effective for maintaining control, so firms use a combination that involves contracting out to others (I call them “mid contractors”) that in turn often (not always) hire employees.</p>
<p>Bear in mind also that many US firms following the Uber model — like Cherry (car washes), Prim (laundry), SnapGoods (gear rental), Rewinery (wine) and HomeJoy (home cleaning) — <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/03/27/good_riddance_gig_economy_uber_ayn_rand_and_the_awesome_collapse_of_silicon_valleys_dream_of_destroying_your_job/">have failed</a>. As <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/03/27/good_riddance_gig_economy_uber_ayn_rand_and_the_awesome_collapse_of_silicon_valleys_dream_of_destroying_your_job/">one author</a> argues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… they provide crummy jobs that most people only want to do as a very last resort. These platforms show their workforce no allegiance or loyalty, and they engender none in return.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In effect, there is a major labour-supply problem that many of these firms have been unable to reconcile. </p>
<p>When firms have tried to turn employees into faux “independent contractors” (such as at <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1367444.htm">Kemalex a few years ago</a>) to avoid paying leave, superannuation and workers compensation, workers and unions have resisted this <a href="http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/business-structures-and-types/independent-contractors/Pages/unfair-contracts-and-sham-contracts.aspx">“sham contracting”</a>. Most employees don’t want to be contractors. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a lot of the people who end up as the “mid contractors” are the sorts of people who would otherwise have been small-business owners or self-employed anyway.<br>
Still, circumstances differ between industries. For example, people who love trucks might buy one. They’ll then become owner-drivers — and sit at the bottom of the road transport supply chain. In the textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) industries, workers were forced to be contractors and only a decade ago worked for as little as <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/6204/1/DivineyLillywhite_ethical_threads.pdf">$2-3 per hour</a>. </p>
<p>That’s been the pattern in those industries for a long time. And most new forms of hierarchical contracting either continue to ultimately rely on employment, or contract to people who would have been self-employed anyway (or, like <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-20/your-uber-driver-probably-has-another-job">many Uber drivers</a>, have a “main” job as an employee).</p>
<h2>New approaches</h2>
<p>This is not to argue that these, often new, “non-standard” models don’t require new responses from unions, or from policymakers. </p>
<p>But to understand what those new approaches should be, we also should recognise that employment will remain the dominant model in capitalism. Hence <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/03/27/good_riddance_gig_economy_uber_ayn_rand_and_the_awesome_collapse_of_silicon_valleys_dream_of_destroying_your_job/">one US observer</a> suggests:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We need to figure out a way to launch a universal, portable safety net for all … workers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Beyond that, at the core of the problem is the need to find ways to make capital at the top of the food chain accountable. This is the sort of thing that we have seen attempted and implemented in the TCF industries, in <a href="http://jir.sagepub.com/content/57/4/585.abstract">Australia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/rana-plaza-does-it-take-a-tragedy-to-make-businesses-responsible-50439">internationally</a>. </p>
<p>It is what the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) sought to do, before it was <a href="http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/168316">demonised</a> and then <a href="http://www.retailcouncil.com.au/media-releases/statement-on-the-abolition-of-the-rsrt">abolished</a> by the current government.</p>
<p>While there may be criticisms of the detail of what the RSRT sought to do, such as the difficulty of dealing with backloads, there was no doubt from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-do-better-pay-rates-for-truck-drivers-improve-safety-57639">mountain of evidence</a> that low pay for owner-drivers was a factor in the industry having the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&6306002.xls&6306.0&Data%20Cubes&012B26FB4DAB2A65CA25728F0016A424&0&May%202006&28.02.2007&Latest">longest working hours</a> and the most deaths – <a href="http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/555/notifiable-fatalities-report-december-2014.pdf">especially bystander deaths</a> – of any industry. </p>
<p>The government’s treatment of the RSRT did not suggest it wanted to extend “a strong safety net” in an area where the legal system had “not kept up” with “different ways of doing business”. Quite the converse appeared the case. </p>
<p>The ways in which capital seeks to introduce hierarchical contracting vary from industry to industry and so responses need to take account of these industry differences. The regulatory responses need to be – dare I say it – innovative.</p>
<p>Using the rhetoric of disruption to cover a weakening of the safety net would not be such a response.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Peetz receives funding from the Australian Research Council and, as a university employee, has undertaken research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics, in Australia and overseas, employers and unions.</span></em></p>While there has been a rise in contracting out and ‘disruptors’ such as Uber, employment is an will remain the dominant method of business operation in a capitalist setting.David Peetz, Professor of Employment Relations, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200202014-02-20T00:54:30Z2014-02-20T00:54:30ZOnline labour marketplaces: job insecurity gone viral?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38824/original/xg6dy55s-1389331219.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Online labour marketplaces are capitalising on increased numbers of "casualised" workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victor1558/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some of the newest enterprises online are those which link workers to anyone who wants a job done. They’re not concerned with employment or jobs but with “tasks”. These are small, one-off, discrete portions of work for completion within a short time frame at short notice.</p>
<p>They are different from employment websites like <a href="http://www.seek.com.au/?cid=sk:main:au:tab:jobs">seek.com</a> which have essentially substituted for newspapers in employment advertising.</p>
<p>Websites <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/">Airtasker</a>, <a href="http://ozlance.com.au/">Ozlance</a> and <a href="https://www.sidekicker.com.au/">Sidekicker</a> show what’s on offer: home help tasks like cleaning or painting and small administrative jobs (Airtasker); web based assignments that can be done online (Ozlance); or explicitly business oriented, (Sidekicker), offering helpers for office work, events, hospitality, and promotions. Others include <a href="https://www.odesk.com/">Odesk</a>, <a href="http://www.freelancer.com/">Freelancer</a> and <a href="https://www.elance.com/">Elance</a> mostly offering online work like programming, web design and translation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38817/original/6zkzk5m5-1389329091.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Online labour marketplaces are not that different to the traditional jobs board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Katchooo/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one way, the online employment agencies are doing no more than providing a platform for what already happens informally through networks. They arguably extend opportunities for workers and businesses or households to make a mutually beneficial connection. They are also an inevitability of the internet age.</p>
<p>In addition, the online agencies extend what is already on offer by contracting and labour hire companies, as well as self-employed contractors such as office temps, cleaners, IT specialists, gardeners, labourers, or tradespeople. But in the new model the middle-man (the contracting company) is eliminated –notwithstanding the cut which the online agency takes for itself out of the payment to the worker.</p>
<h2>A more casualised workforce</h2>
<p>The type of work offered by online employment agencies extends the “casualisation” of the workforce accounting now for around <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/54094CB8A57708B3CA257B51001F5D90?OpenDocument">20% of Australian employees</a>. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-in-vain-casualisation-presents-a-precarious-future-for-workers-8181">casualisation</a> is increasingly part of ongoing employment arrangements for many businesses. The “helper” employed through an online agency is in effect another “casualised” worker.</p>
<p>But unlike other types of contracted and casual employment, these employment relationships fall outside any labour regulatory framework as provided through the <a href="http://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/legislation/pages/default.aspx">Fair Work Act.</a> This means they do not conform to minimum wage or health and safety requirements or provide for any other entitilements. While this is not dissimilar to the situation of any self-employed contractor, its desirability depends on whether the workers have a real choice in regards to this kind of employment and are able to negotiate satisfactory pay and conditions.</p>
<h2>Bidding rates down</h2>
<p>On the <a href="">Airtasker website</a>, a job to clean an apartment involving a couple of hours work offers US$40. <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/faq#1-10">Airtasker</a> charges 15% commission for the job so the total payment the worker received - US$34. At the time of my perusing, on the <a href="http://ozlance.com.au/r/r/web-developer/anywhere/1927">Ozlance website</a> someone is looking for a web developer which has attracted 27 quotes ranging from A$250 to A$2000.</p>
<p>These bidding arrangements for jobs may encourage undercutting of wages across the board. While the agencies themselves insist that quality - as monitored through an online review process - is also an important component of the bidding and pricing process, it is hard to see that this will outweigh price for most contracts, especially where quality factors are similar. Much online work can also be outsourced to low wage countries as we can see on the <a href="http://www.freelancer.com.au/work/melbourne-freelancers/1/">Freelancer Australian</a> website, where people are offering their services for as low as US$6 and US$7 per hour.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sidekicker.com.au/">Sidekicker</a> runs a different model with a set minimum fee of A$29 per hour but deducts 20% for itself so the worker will end with A$23 per hour – maybe not so bad depending on what the job involves.</p>
<p>The online employment agencies promote the freedom and opportunity of freelancing work, but I wonder how many people find this type of work greatly congenial and rewarding over the long term. One <a href="http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/home-it/58916-airtasker-participants-average-$14-in-a-year">IT commentator</a> suggests the returns to workers are low and that many people signed up for Airtasker get very little, if any, work at all.</p>
<h2>A sober lesson from the US</h2>
<p>The type of employment arrangement from the online agencies recalls some of the disturbing employment trends in the United States as portrayed in a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2013/s3874510.htm">Foreign Correspondent program</a> and in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/27/heres-where-middle-class-jobs-are-vanishing-the-fastest/">other articles</a>. The essence of these stories is that the post GFC recovery in employment in the USA is quite weak with many people forced into <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175738/tomgram%3A_barbara_garson%2C_how_to_become_a_part-time_worker_without_really_trying/">part time, low wage and casual employment</a> because there are so few decent jobs being generated. Nobel laureate <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/inequality-is-holding-back-the-recovery/?_r=0">Joseph Stiglitz</a> believes this trend is consolidating inequality and also holding back the recovery.</p>
<p>In the Foreign Correspondent documentary, a young woman is employed in a bar with a nominal wage of US$2.13 per hour and relies on gratuities to make a living. What kind of employment arrangement is this? In fact, it is an employment relationship which the online agencies also propagate.</p>
<p>The individual worker comes into the “labour” market unfettered by any requirements, regulations or rights in relation to wages and conditions – simply what she can obtain on the day for her labour in a marketplace much as a farmer would auction a sheep or a box of oranges.</p>
<p>Should we be worried about this trend in online employment agencies then? It depends. In an economy and labour market with plentiful opportunity for <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm">decent work</a>, it is really of no account and may suit some workers and some employers. But where opportunity for decent work is eroded as reports from the USA suggest, then the proliferation of unregulated employment arrangements is concerning in that it exacerbates inequality and dampens economic growth as Stiglitz argues. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the fourth piece in our Insecure work series. Click on the links below to read the other pieces.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/workplace-flexibility-on-insecure-ground-22005">Workplace ‘flexibility’ on insecure ground</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-job-insecurity-becoming-the-norm-for-young-people-22311">Is job insecurity becoming the norm for young people?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/viewpoints-should-penalty-rates-be-abolished-22819">Viewpoints: should penalty rates be abolished?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Sheen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some of the newest enterprises online are those which link workers to anyone who wants a job done. They’re not concerned with employment or jobs but with “tasks”. These are small, one-off, discrete portions…Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, Political and Social Inquiry , Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.