This month, truck drivers and gig workers receive new rights under transport reform laws. For the first time there will be protections from unfair contract terminations if you’re a truck driver, and unfair deactivations if you’re a gig worker.
‘Deactivation’, by the way, is how gig companies refer to kicking a worker off an app, often with no reason provided and no way to appeal. This is a huge win for owner drivers and other workers in the gig economy, one of the changes under transport reform laws that will make a real difference to people’s lives.
The rights will be covered under two codes: for gig workers, the Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code, and for road transport workers, the Road Transport Industry Termination Code.
For gig workers it means if they’re told they’re being deactivated, they’ll have the right to discuss it with the platform – and importantly, with a human instead of an algorithm. It is mind-boggling that gig workers have been sacked from an app without even talking to a person for so many years. They’ll also be able to access the Fair Work Commission to appeal a decision.
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If you’re a gig worker, trying to get a fair outcome, or even a person to talk to you, has been next to impossible. Many have been forced to look for other work after losing access in an instant to an app that was their source of income.
This change will make a real difference to the lives of those workers and is a crucial step in bringing up the gig economy as a whole.
For truck drivers, the changes mean there’ll need to be a fair process before contracts are terminated. The Fair Work Commission can also consider these contract terminations and order remedies – including reinstatement of a contract if it was unfairly terminated, or compensation.
For too long, owner drivers and transport operators have been under immense contract pressures. Over many conversations with drivers over the years, I’ve heard too many stories about those pressures on drivers to work beyond legal driving limits just to avoid losing a contract, to fudge logbooks or overload vehicles.
Of course, many transport operators are themselves under huge contract pressures from the top of the supply chain.
A driver at Scott’s Refrigerated, before it collapsed, had been working well beyond his limits, and called in to say he was too fatigued to keep going – and was told he had to keep going or they’d lose the contract. He rolled his truck and was killed.
That’s just one story. There are countless in the road transport industry, not just tragic deaths but businesses going under because they tried to do the right thing and couldn’t compete with those who weren’t; people who’ve walked away from the industry because it had become unsustainable.
These new rights, which will give drivers protections against unfair contract terminations, are a crucial part of making this industry better. Of course, it’s only one part of things.
Drivers and transport operators can’t be the only ones held accountable when they have the least control. That’s why it’s so important that the new transport reform laws also give us the power to rope in those wealthy clients at the top of the supply chain and ensure they pay their fair share.
This entire industry fought for those laws and we’re only just getting started using them.
One of our first applications using the laws, after wide consultation, was to ensure maximum 30-day payment terms, industry-wide, no matter whether you’re a transport business or an employee driver or owner driver. That’s another step towards reducing the huge financial burdens on drivers and operators.
The other applications – to establish minimum standards in food delivery and parcel delivery – will help bring the industry up. Sub-committees for this first round of applications are now beginning to allow the industry to have a say and be involved in the process.
That’s just the start. Over time we’ll be able to build on these standards and ensure road transport is safer, fairer and more sustainable – and able to deal with the challenges posed by automation and transition to net zero.
Over many years, wealthy clients at the top of the supply chain have been able to dictate terms and conditions, while making mammoth profits at the expense of workers and transport operators.
But with the whole industry united, that era is drawing to a close. It’s time for wealthy clients to pay their fair share, and we’re well on our way to making that a reality.
New rights to contract protections are one piece of the puzzle. Our first round of applications are another. These laws themselves are just a tool to help us deliver real change – what has got us this far is realising that what unites us as an industry is far more than what divides us. And it’s what will ensure a better industry into the future.
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