By Jordan O'Reilly, Hireup co-founder and CEO. First published on LinkedIn.
Unexpectedly, worker rights got a moment in the sun in Sunday's 'Great Debate'. Albanese and Morrison had very different positions on the so-called gig economy. I'm the CEO of a digital platform and I welcome the long-overdue discussion.
In an election campaign focused more on character than substance, it was a rare moment of clarity of policy difference. In Sunday night’s Channel 9 debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, different perspectives on the gig economy were, quite suddenly, front and centre.
Midway through the debate, Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison were given the chance to ask each other two questions. One of Albanese’s was to ask Morrison whether every worker should get at least the $20.33 minimum wage.
‘It depends’ answered the Prime Minister, ‘whether they are running a business or not’.
Albanese was expecting that, and jumped on it. A subclass is being created, he said, of gig economy workers without rights or entitlements.
“Your Uber driver is not a small business person.”
“Aren’t they?” the Prime Minister replied. “New economy businesses [like Uber] are allowing them [contractors] to take charge of their own life.”
The division of principle and political philosophy was clear. Albanese was promising reform so that gig economy workers would be guaranteed minimum wages. Morrison clearly thinks the growing cohort of gig economy entrepreneurs needed no such paternalistic protection.
In his post-debate analysis, David Crowe - one of the hosts - highlighted Morrison’s “It depends” as a key moment in the debate. A lack of minimum wages for a ‘subclass’ of workers - Crowe suggested - would be a theme Labor would return to again and again over the next two weeks.
But there is a danger that the headline - Gig economy “good or bad?” - will obscure the one moment of subtlety in last night’s debate.
It was hard to hear over the noise, but Albanese had one line that that showed where there is middle ground:
“There are actually some gig companies that have come to agreements in order to treat people as employees so that they get those minimum conditions.”
Indeed.
There are not many.
But there are some.
Hireup is the most obvious example.
Our workers have all the flexibility of the gig economy. We are - in the Prime Minister’s words - “a new economy business [allowing workers] to take charge of their own lives.”
But - Prime Minister, listen up! - our workers are NOT contractors. We are an example - perhaps the only real example so far - of a “gig company” that “treats people as employees so that they get those minimum conditions.”
Now I don’t like Hireup to be described as a gig economy company. I think our workers' shifts - often with the same person for weeks, months or even years - are much, much more than ‘gigs’. But if ‘gig economy’ is becoming shorthand for ‘flexible work arranged though digital platforms’ then I might have to let that go.
What’s good is to hear a senior politician - the man who could be Prime Minister two weeks from now - say so publicly that flexible work is not incompatible with traditional worker rights and entitlements. That’s exactly the message I’ve been trying to get across for two years now.
As I told a Senate Inquiry into job security last year, to those who say it’s too hard to align worker rights and entitlements with the flexibility of digital platforms, I say ‘that’s rubbish - try harder’. As I wrote last year, flexible work arranged through online platforms does not need to be done by contractors with few entitlements or rights. In some sectors, in some circumstances, contracting might be appropriate – if power is genuinely shared between a platform, its worker and its clients. But that should be the exception, not the rule. Technology – alone – is no excuse for a de facto expectation of precarious, insecure work on behalf of companies claiming not to be employers.
I’m glad Anthony Albanese agrees and look forward, if he does become Prime Minister, to the necessary legislative changes that will turn his actions into words.
If Scott Morrision remains Prime minister I hope he, too, will reflect on his current, binary position. In the debate last night, he stuck to the misguided trope that, essentially, there’s a choice between either the flexibility offered by a ‘new economy business’ or employee rights. But there’s only such a choice if politicians choose to make it so. They can unmake it just as easily - and help the economy have the best of both worlds.
Either way, last night’s debate means the brightest possible spotlight is now being shone on previously hidden, shady practices in the gig economy. We cannot now look away; the lid’s been lifted. I, for one, am delighted that the leaders' debate has fired the starting gun on what I hope will become a national one.
Jordan O'Reilly
Hireup co-founder and co-CEO.