The Senate Select Committee on Job Security First interim report: on-demand platform work in Australia June 2021 © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-76093-243-5 (Printed Version) ISBN 978-1-76093-243-5 (HTML Version) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra. Members Chair Senator Tony Sheldon ALP, NSW Deputy Chair Senator the Hon Matthew Canavan NATS, QLD Members Senator Mehreen Faruqi AG, NSW Senator Ben Small LP, WA Senator Jess Walsh ALP, VIC Secretariat Mr Tas Larnach, Committee Secretary Dr Emma Banyer, Principal Research Officer Mr James Strickland, Principal Research Officer Ms Monique Nielsen, Senior Research Officer Ms Angie Lilley, Senior Research Officer Ms Jo-Anne Holmes, Administrative Officer Mr Jason See, Administrative Officer Department of the Senate Ph: 02 6277 3472 PO Box 6100 Fax: 02 6277 5809 Parliament House E-mail: [email protected] Canberra ACT 2600 Internet: www.aph.gov.au/select_jobsecurity iii Contents Members ............................................................................................................................................. iii List of Recommendations ................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1—Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 What is on-demand platform work? ................................................................................................. 1 The need for an interim report ........................................................................................................... 3 Issues ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Moves towards reform at the state and territory level ................................................................... 5 Victoria ....................................................................................................................................... 6 New South Wales ...................................................................................................................... 8 Queensland ................................................................................................................................ 9 Western Australia ................................................................................................................... 10 Conduct of the inquiry to date ......................................................................................................... 10 Submissions ............................................................................................................................. 11 Hearings ................................................................................................................................... 11 Structure of the interim report ......................................................................................................... 11 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2—On-demand platform work in Australia ................................................................. 13 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Model categorisation ......................................................................................................................... 13 Prevalence in Australia and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic ......................................... 15 Size ............................................................................................................................................ 15 Availability of data and statistics ......................................................................................... 18 Impact of COVID-19 ............................................................................................................... 20 Future growth ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Industries and occupations most affected ...................................................................................... 24 Demographics ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Earnings .............................................................................................................................................. 26 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 3—Major platforms, workforce models and earnings ................................................ 31 Overview of platform-based rideshare services ............................................................................ 31 v Worker income ........................................................................................................................ 32 Workforce demographics ...................................................................................................... 32 A survey of rideshare platforms ..................................................................................................... 33 Uber rideshare ......................................................................................................................... 33 Ola rideshare ........................................................................................................................... 35 Overview of platform-based food delivery services ..................................................................... 36 Workforce demographics ...................................................................................................... 38 A survey of food delivery platforms ............................................................................................... 39 Uber Eats .................................................................................................................................. 39 Deliveroo .................................................................................................................................. 41 Menulog ................................................................................................................................... 42 Overview of platform-based parcel delivery services .................................................................. 42 Overview of Amazon Flex ..................................................................................................... 43 Overview of platform-based disability care and aged care services .......................................... 47 Disability care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme ........................................ 48 Aged care and home care packages ..................................................................................... 49 Emergence of platforms ......................................................................................................... 49 Care worker demographics and trends ............................................................................... 50 A survey of disability and aged care platforms ............................................................................. 52 Overview of Mable ................................................................................................................. 52 Overview of Hireup ............................................................................................................... 55 Concluding comments ...................................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 4—The impacts of on-demand platform work ............................................................. 59 Pros and cons for workers and businesses ..................................................................................... 59 Increased flexibility ................................................................................................................ 59 Reduced earnings and fewer conditions ............................................................................. 64 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 71 Unsafe work ............................................................................................................................. 72 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 77 Lower job security .................................................................................................................. 77 Decreased power and workplace rights .............................................................................. 78 Industry or sector–specific impacts ................................................................................................