In a decision sure to catch the eye of service providers using rostering apps to keep workers at arm's length, the FWC has found that a home care worker who signed two documents describing her as an independent contractor is in fact an employee capable of suing her employer for unlawful dismissal.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke intends to amend the Closing Loopholes No 2 legislation so that "employee-like" workers in the gig economy and in road transport cannot "double-dip" in the federal and state IR systems.
A leading IR lawyer says the Albanese Government's third tranche casuals provisions are a win for employers as they will provide "considerable certainty", but he predicts an ambiguous independent contracting test will produce "windfall gains and windfall losses".
In finding a DoorDash food delivery driver is an independent contractor, the FWC has held that the "issues of control, delegation and equipment" are almost identical to that in a landmark ruling involving the now-defunct Deliveroo platform.
The Federal Court is today expected to discontinue a mooted $1 billion class action accusing a now-folded workforce management company of misclassifying Telstra technicians as subcontractors, while Shine Lawyers says the workers cannot access the FEG scheme because of the High Court's Jamsek and Personnel Contracting decisions.
The MBA is urging the Albanese Government to drop its plan to empower the FWC to deal with "employee-like" work, but says that if it is determined to go ahead, then the new jurisdiction should be confined to digital platform workers.
Two veteran truck drivers held by the High Court to be contractors rather than employees have today lost a cross-appeal seeking to establish an entitlement to decades of superannuation on the basis that they fell within the wider meaning of employee in the Super Guarantee Act.
A special panel, similar to that proposed for the road transport industry, could be established within the FWC to set minimum pay and conditions for gig workers in disability, aged and home care, a leading IR academic has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Platform companies Deliveroo, Menulog and Uber say they are embracing the Federal Government's consultations on the introduction of national minimum IR standards for the gig economy, but insist any changes must be tailor-made and leave room for choice.
A lawyer is suing her former firm for $2 million in a case accusing it of misrepresenting her employment as that of an independent contractor and discriminating against her because of her gender, race and age.
