Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm trying to clear my throat from laughter after that contribution. I rise tonight to tell the story of Amita Gupta and her husband Santosh, who work as delivery drivers for Uber Eats. Amita and Santosh are hardworking Australians. You might even call them the quiet Australians, who the Prime Minister is always misrepresenting. They want to contribute to the workforce and earn some extra income on top of their disability support pensions.

Amita and Santosh are quiet no longer. Amita is taking on the Uber goliath in the Fair Work Commission, and for good reason. For over 2,700 hours of work, Uber Eats only paid Amita $21,000. That's $7.85 an hour—less than $8 an hour and less than half the minimum wage. Despite being a model worker, she was unceremoniously sacked by Uber Eats for being just 10 minutes late for a delivery. Uber's response was that because Amita is an independent contractor, she has no practical rights. Amita is taking her case to the Industrial Relations Commission to fight for all drivers and riders who are being unfairly treated by this global tech monolith. But Amita's case is only one example of what are fundamental issues in the industry. This industry—the gig economy—is a throwback to the piecework of the 1800s that our economy had so rightly moved on from but is now unfortunately returning to. Recent surveys of food delivery riders found that 75 per cent are paid below minimum award rates of pay. The government's inaction leaves companies like Uber, Deliveroo and DoorDash to self-regulate. It's quite clear that self-regulation doesn't serve the community or workers. It serves the CEOs and lobbyists, who make their living from an industry that leaves workers without entitlements and rights. Survey data has revealed that almost 50 per cent of food delivery riders in the gig economy have either been injured on the job or know someone who has.

A few weeks ago, I took the opportunity on an outreach program to meet and interview food delivery riders in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. I met a young man who had been working in the food delivery industry for over 18 months. He works an average of somewhere between 25 and 30 hours a week, making $500 before costs are taken out. Working days and nights in any manner of weather, this young man has been injured twice whilst on the job. The first time, he was hit by a car and was unable to work for six weeks. His company told him they had insurance in case of injury, but, no matter how many times he called the company, they refused to provide him with the details he needed to make a claim. The second time he was injured, a driver in a parked car opened their side door without looking. He was injured; his bike, which is his livelihood, was crumpled; and he was unable to work for two months. For three weeks he chased the company so he could make a claim. In the end, they gave him a few weeks pay of roughly $300 a week—a cut of 40 per cent in his average earnings—and no payment for his medical bills. You can't tell me this is the future of work to which the country should aspire.

Last month I was proud to stand with delivery riders and drivers who delivered a charter of rights to the head offices of Uber and Deliveroo in Sydney and Melbourne. They called for minimum rates of pay, transparency on how rates are set, collective bargaining for pay and safety, an allowance for bad weather, training, and fully funded insurance for when they get injured at work, something that many Australians simply take for granted. In the absence of regulation, these tech giants regulate themselves. With no appropriate rights for riders or drivers, they are pushed into debt and bankruptcy, unable to seek redress. For people like Amita Gupta, we cannot allow this to continue to happen.