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

I recently rose in this place to tell the stories of two food delivery workers, Dede Fredy and Xiaojun Chen, who lost their lives on the job for Uber Eats and Hungry Panda. Since I last spoke on the fate of these workers, Chow Khai Shien, a 36-year-old man from Malaysia, was killed in Melbourne while working for DoorDash. He is the third delivery worker to be killed on the job in just one month. Every one of these three workers had aspirations about the life they wanted to have here in Australia, or the life they wanted to provide for their family back home. Every single one of these workers had a family and friends depending on them who have been left devastated, with lifelong grief.

Since I last spoke on this issue, I've also had the privilege of spending time with a very brave woman, Lihong Wei, the widow of Xiaojun Chen. Lihong told me of the heartbreak she felt at losing her husband, and her family, their father. This week, Lihong took the incredibly brave step of giving evidence at the New South Wales parliament's Select Committee on the Impact of Technological and Other Change on the Future of Work and Workers in New South Wales. Through a translator, she spoke of the helplessness of being on the other side of the world when her husband passed, saying: 'All we could do was pray for him, from far away from the homeland. My mother had collapsed, had totally broken down. My father-in-law—he wouldn't dare to tell him the news until now.' She went on further to say: 'I can still not believe that my husband has left us forever. My eight-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter has lost a father. Our elderly parents with grey hair have lost their son forever. I cannot imagine how do we carry on in life. ' Lihong was asked at the hearing why they had decided as a family that Xiaojun should come to Australia. Her answer was clear: 'Because we had thought the two of us had been working too hard in order to bring a happy life to our children, he decided to come to Australia, like so many other people that have come to Australia, so many of us and our ancestors.' Asked about compensation for her husband, she said that Hungry Panda had told her that, according to law, they have no obligations or responsibilities to provide that. However, outside of the law, she said, 'They are happy to provide us much support as they can.' Lihong continued: 'What I cannot understand is, he has been working for Hungry Panda all this time and he has been working so hard. Why is he not entitled to those benefits that every other person is entitled to?' We can't understand that either, Lihong.

A recent survey conducted by the Transport Workers Union found that a third of food delivery workers had been hurt or injured while working, with the vast majority receiving no support from their company. These workers earn an average of $10 an hour, rain, hail or shine, without super, sick leave or rights. These workers are monitored by the company app literally every second. They literally have a bug on their shoulder that shows companies every movement they make whilst delivering or waiting for a delivery. These companies are so good at measuring what their workers are doing that they can pinpoint a complaint of an alleged slow delivery to a specific worker and kick them off the app without any appeal process. These companies know exactly what's going on with their workers in the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and across the country. They know about the deaths, the injuries and the harassment that their workers are facing every day. Just today, a motion was passed by the Senate in support of those workers. Also I'm pleased to say TheSydney Morning Herald in its editorial made a plea for rights for these gig workers, these food delivery workers, these frontline workers who have been so important and critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But neither the companies nor this government are doing anything about it. The exploitation of gig workers continues. It's ongoing. It demonstrates horrendous lack of regard for some of the most vulnerable people in our community, Australian and foreign born workers in this country. They die, they get exploited and they don't have support. Can the government change its position?