Just days ago, Uber Eats introduced a new contract for riders that Slater and Gordon principal Andrew Rich and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) said is designed to avoid classifying the workers as employees and instead as independent contractors. They said it means riders for the app-based company will not be entitled to a minimum wage, unfair dismissal or workers’ compensation.

It comes after Uber Eats avoided an unfair dismissal ruling in the Federal Court by settling with a delivery driver before the decision could be handed down. It was reported that the Federal Court criticised the company’s arguments that it is just a platform connecting restaurants and deliverers, not an employer.

TWU, who represented the rider, said the contract is an attempt to keep riders from proving they are employees and keep them from entitlements, such as minimum wage and sick and annual leave.

Employment law expert and Slater and Gordon principal lawyer Andrew Rich said the move highlighted the power imbalance between the global company and its vulnerable workers, who will now be left without their workers’ compensation rights.  

“These Uber Eats drivers and riders have no capacity to actually negotiate the terms on which they are engaged – there is no semblance of equality in the bargaining positions of Uber and the drivers and riders,” Mr Rich said, adding that the workers cannot negotiate their pay, conditions or establish their own customer connections.

Mr Rich said the company has made the drivers and riders pay for their own workers’ compensation insurance, rather than paying its own insurance premiums to cover them. He added that the contract also appears to make it impossible for the workers to advocate their own industrial rights publicly.

“This suggests a real need for regulation of at least some sectors within the gig economy regardless of whether they are contractors or not,” Mr Rich said.

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“The fundamental problem is that these low-paid and vulnerable workers are being disguised as independent contractors so companies like Uber Eats can continue denying them rights provided to other employees. The deck is stacked against them.”

Uber Eats said the changes to the contracts are part of a large change to the overall business model, which has been in the works for over a year and claims that it is not in relation to an independent contractor status.

Workers will be contracted directly with Uber Eats to provide services, rather than the merchants, and will have to provide an ABN. Uber and Uber Eats said that while it is not a requirement for platform companies, it has provided a “partner support package” which they said includes insurance.