Gig work changes will hit consumers: bosses

Big business says minimum standards for gig work will lead to higher costs for consumers.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Big business says the Albanese government’s proposed minimum standards for gig work will lead to higher costs for consumers, less reliable services and more inflexibility for workers.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke hit back at the Business Council of Australia criticism as “weird”, while ACTU secretary Sally McManus accused employers of “opposing every action governments take to try to make our country a bit fairer”.

The government’s proposed second wave of industrial relations changes includes empowering the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards for workers in “employee-like” forms of work, including the gig economy.

Responding to a government consultation paper, the BCA says while it supports workers being protected from unsafe work ­practices and exploitation, the changes will disadvantage workers by restricting their wages, rostering and ability to move between platforms.

The BCA said there could be “perverse outcomes” if the regulation for gig workers was nor properly defined, including the commission’s powers to regulate gig work being broader than what exists for direct employment and gig workers forced to be union members irrespective of choice.

BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the proposed changes would “reduce the convenience and reliability of the services that consumers want and push up the costs. These changes will ultimately lead to higher costs for consumers, with less reliable services and more inflexibility for workers.

“They would also have serious impacts on small business - we need to remember these are the jobs that allow us to order takeaway from our favourite family-owned restaurant, or shop online from a local corner store,” she said.

“At a time when we want business to be innovating with the flexibility to grow, these measures will impact jobs and livelihoods and create a more complex workplace relations system that stifles the ability to keep pace with what customers want.”

After their unsuccessful campaign to thwart the passage of the government’s first tranche of workplace law changes, business groups are increasingly vocal in their opposition to the second round, which includes a “same job, same pay” policy cracking down on worker exploitation by labour hire firms.

Mr Burke on Sunday said: “I know there’s been some commentary about some of the business groups muscling up this year, but frankly what’s coming out is just weird.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

“Gig workers being paid below the minimum wage is indefensible,” he said.

“It’s getting to the point where we probably need these groups to explain what forms of exploitation they are in favour of.”

Ms McManus on Sunday said “big business does not endear itself to the public by opposing every ­action governments take to try to make our country a bit fairer”.

“While we haven’t seen the BCA’s submission, we hope big business understands that Australians can no longer accept it taking away workers’ rights by keeping pay low through schemes too many businesses have adopted,” she said.

“Some businesses have gotten as good at avoiding workers’ rights as they are at avoiding paying tax.

“They have found ways of avoiding their legal obligation to pay people fairly by telling workers to ‘go get an ABN’.

“If our laws are not updated to close the legal loopholes that they’ve found, it will be Australian workers and their families who will ­continue struggling to keep their heads above water while big business posts record profits.”

In its response, the BCA said “at a time when Australia has ­arguably full employment but ­record low productivity growth, investment heading overseas and pressure from inflation and interest rates, there is little justification for up-ending the workplace relations system and constraining worker choice and opportunities”.