Uber has been forced by the UK courts to treat its British drivers as workers. It will probably require legislative change for Uber’s Australian drivers to be treated as employees.
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.
With the recession exposing more workers to the vagaries of gig work, it’s more urgent than ever to close the legal loopholes that deny workers employment rights.
The failure to anticipate the consequence of workers having no paid sick leave is one of the greatest flaws in Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The earned income tax credit lifts around 6 million of the working poor out of poverty every year, but with the economy hammered by COVID-19, many might not get the benefit they need.
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%.
Deputy Director, Intellectual Forum at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge, and Researcher for the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University, University of Cambridge