Busting The Myths Of The Gig Economy: Platform Workers – How Should They Be Treated By Our Industrial Relations System?

Address By Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Ai Group to The Industrial Relations Society Of NSW 2022 Annual Conference – Gibraltar Hotel Bowral.

Australia is currently facing some significant economic challenges.

Whoever wins the election next Saturday will be dealing with an economy in transition both at the macro level and at the workplace level.

Businesses are facing supply chain disruptions, significantly increased input costs, skill and labour shortages, weak productivity growth, wage pressures, and rising interest rates which impact upon business financing and investment.

Workers are facing rising prices and rising interest rates, which are imposing cost of living pressures. On the positive side, there has been strong growth in full time employment and increased participation in the workforce.  Participation in the workforce is now at record levels.

In this environment, the last thing that anyone needs is for labour market and workplace flexibility to be stifled by ill-conceived new regulations. This would not be in the interests of businesses, workers, their families or the broader community.

Many of the major platform businesses are members of Ai Group and we play an important role in representing this sector in workplace relations policy matters.

Any new regulations for on-demand work need to be based on a strong foundation of facts. There are few areas where the facts are so commonly misrepresented as with the on-demand economy.