There is effectively a class of Australian workers who don’t get holiday and sick pay, no matter how long or regularly they work, simply because their employer deemed them “casual” when they began.
Our five years of research reveals an industry facing push back from both workers and customers. Many workers we spoke with sought to leave the gig economy.
Uber, the poster company of the gig economy, has agreed its Australian workers deserve more employee-like conditions. Why it has done this now isn’t too hard to work out.
The practice of ‘casual’ employment has become a means to foster insecurity and low power, depriving many workers of leave under the guise of an alleged need for flexibility.
The Morrison Government has picked up its weapons again, with an industrial relations bill that will tip the scales further against employees.
Centrelink queues shocked Australians but long before COVID-19 Western Sydney had job-poor neighbourhoods with very high unemployment rates.
Loren Elliott/AAP
Western Sydney’s growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
The spread of coronavirus highlights the urgent need for housing for people who have nowhere to live.
Uber’s loss of its licence to operate in London signals uberisation is not an unstoppable force. Job insecurity, though, is on the march.
Will Oliver/EPA
Academics on casual contracts often feel vulnerable and of lower status than “permanent” staff members. They can minimise their exploitation as if it’s part of the authentic academic experience.
Uber has sparked protests around the world. It is seen as exploiting its own drivers and harming those employed in regulated taxi industries.
Justin Lane/AAP
Though best remembered for her role in the doomed German Revolution, Rosa Luxemburg’s theories on how capitalism exploits people and nature need hearing today.
Kenya Red Cross workers transport emergency relief supplies to flood victims in Tana River County.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
Less secure jobs are just one aspect of the rise of finance capital. It’s a driver of increasingly uneven income distributions and corporate priorities that are now putting our future at risk.
Underemployment and stagnant wages may be strong signs of worker insecurity in the face of relentless cost-cutting.
Paul Braven/AAP
The Pakistani women who make the majority of the world’s high-quality soccer balls belong to one of the most vulnerable groups in the global economy.
People who work in the black economy come from industries as diverse as horticulture, retail, cleaning, construction and childcare.
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The black economy is more common than we think – how many of us have paid tradies, gardeners or cleaners cash without the exchange of relevant paperwork?
Agriculture, forestry and fishing, and arts and recreation services are much more precarious for their employees.
KATE AUSBURN/AAP