Uber Australia Employee Grievances

This assignment focuses on the issue of employee grievances within Uber Australia. It argues that addressing these concerns through fair treatment and open communication is crucial for the company's long-term success and sustainability in the market. The document emphasizes the need for human resource departments to ensure worker rights are protected and that employees feel valued and motivated.

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Human Resource in Organization
Institution
Student
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Table of Contents
News Story Description...................................................................................................................3
Human Resource Issues Raised in the Article.................................................................................4
Reduced Rights to the employees................................................................................................4
Poor insurance compensation policies.........................................................................................5
Poor employee safety management..............................................................................................5
Improper termination of riders contracts by the company...........................................................5
Demotivation of Uber Riders.......................................................................................................6
Recommendations and Conclusion..................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

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News Story Description
Uber is a company in Australia which deals with the transport of customers to different places.
This industry links various drivers, ‘driver-partners,' who normally use their vehicles to ferry
customers who may require the ride. It was initially started in the USA in 2010 but later copied
to Australia in 2012 and has since flourished from then (Mattern, 2017). The drivers are not
covered by the employer in whichever case, either insurance or any other work policy covers
needed for their survival in the industry.
Many organizations in the world do not value their employees as required (Lee, 2017). A good
example is the Uber Australia which has more than 60,000 drivers and specifically calls for
driver partnerships. It has been reported that the organization is settling unfair dismal claims to
its drivers claiming that they should remain contractual, a factor that has made them feel as if
they are in exile and being misused for the specific reason. According to the AFR, the company
has admitted that the reason why they treat their drivers in such ways is that the latter does not
qualify to be employees and thus they should remain to work on the contractual basis (Michael,
2016). Rideshare drivers association filed another case for being mistreated by the Uber
Australia too. A spokesperson from Uber Australia was clearly heard claiming that the main
purpose of the regulation could not be achieved whenever the drivers purposed to avoid the
employment regulations and thus they should remain to work on the contractual basis.
Other companies have also evolved to challenge the drivers' mistreatments and assured of
fighting for their rights. Rideshare Drivers United pushed forward for an investigative exercise
through an ombudsman to research and came up with a clear evidence where the conditions
under which drivers are treated really meet the federal industrial relations laws of the Australian
government. All these advocacy groups are actually fighting for the drivers’ rights, claiming that

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they should be treated as fully pledged employees and not as contractors. According to Fairfax
Media, there is the likelihood of settling these disputes whenever these drivers get tested by
authorities and acknowledged as employees. Uber Australia believes that their driver-partners
can lose work if they are found violent or providing the unconducive environment to the riders.
This policy has been established to ensure that the customers are treated in a a more human and
fair manner and to ensure security to both the riders and their customers. However, the need for
an agreement between the rivers and the management of the company must get emphasized to
ensure a proper understanding between the two parts hence avoiding conflicts.
Human Resource Issues Raised in the Article
The rise of popularity of Uber has been accompanied by various legal arguments and rulings
from various authorities. The issues raised in the article here are concerned with the various roles
of human resource department, though the Uber Company has not yet implemented them. This
part is explained in close reference to theories of leadership for the management of the company.
These theories include the trait theory of leadership, behavioral leadership theories, and the
contingency theories. These issues are discussed below:
Reduced Rights to the employees
Most of the people have been heard claiming that the rights of the riders and drivers are being
diminished. One of them is that Uber Australia is not allowed to hold a valid workers
compensation policy by the government of Australia simply because it employs its workers on
the contractual basis (Warhurst, Mathieu, & Wright, 2017). The company could only possess this
policy if only its employees are permanently employed. This has been a disadvantage to the
drivers since their work security is not guaranteed. It is the role of the Human Resource in any
given company to ensure the well-being of the employees and provide enough security, both

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physically and financially, a role that has been violating in Uber Australia Company (Palmer,
2017). Uber views drivers and the organizational management as two different entities which
cannot correlate in whichever way. Their proper correlation on how to serve the customers
properly is considered as the best strategy to improving the company reputation to the country
hence winning broader market base.
Poor insurance compensation policies
Drivers, in this case, are always at risk simply because whenever they encounter accidents while
driving there is no one to cater for such expenses. They can only be helped by the compulsory
third party (CTP) insurance policy which has no relationship with the company. This is the
reason as to why these Uber drivers are seen to be fighting for employment rights. Many
insurance companies seem to reject these covers when they come to realize that the driver got an
accident while driving an ‘illegal’ vehicle (Sparrow & Chung, 2016).
Poor employee safety management
Uber drivers have been deprived of safety measures which should be guaranteed to them by the
human resource department. For example, Mr. Harries, 39 who has been a driver in the company
and could drive for more than 70hrs weekly had a story to tell. He explained that he was on his
way to Brisbane airport for a customer when he was beaten on his face by a man who was a
customer of another Uber car driver for no good reason (Cogger, 2014). The other driver did not
defend him despite having been worked together for some time. After reporting the matter to
both the police and to Uber, no action was taken. Uber deactivated him. This company used the
contract factor to employees in order to evade workers satisfaction and not to be attached to
various obligations such as employees’ compensation (Plenter, 2017).

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Improper termination of riders contracts by the company
Being on contractual basis means that the drivers are not fully employed and that their contracts
can be terminated anytime, under whichever circumstances. This uncertainty keeps the workers
always worried about their job security and to some extent psychologically tortured in one way
or another. Uber had not actually been able to complete risk assessment tests on whether its
workers are employees or contractors until when AFR brought it to light that the company deals
with contractors in order to avoid various risks.
Demotivation of Uber Riders
Riders have suffered humiliation in various ways to the point of even leaving the job for greener
pastures. At least at the end of every financial period, there should be employee appraisal in
order to ensure that there is a positive competition among the employees, a factor which can lead
to increased output and profits in the company. Instead of motivating the riders, the human
resource management has remained to neglect and overlooking these employees. They have
encountered demotivation severally since the company doesn’t acknowledge them as fully
pledged employees but rather as contractors.
Recommendations and Conclusion
Based on the above issues facing Uber operations for the company, the following actions should
be taken in order to resolve these issues:
 Uber should employ its workers on the permanent basis, cater for their welfare and
always listen to their grievances.
 Correlation should be enhanced among the employees for it will promote teamwork and
realization of high yields in the organization.

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 It is the role of the managers to set strategies on how the company should perform its
tasks, laying its set goals and objectives as far as the human capital management is
concerned (Cogger, 2014). Organizational process systems should be formulated to
enhance good employee voice, which Uber Company has abandoned for long.
 The safety of the staff and their partnerships should always be the priority to any
company. This is a duty to be carried out by the human resource department. It has been
noticed with a lot of concern that Uber has rubbished these obligations and there seems to
be an upcoming legal fight since the rights of workers should be considered under
whichever circumstances. This misuse of workers has made the Uber Company to have
been worked by hundreds of thousands of employees, with only about 60,000 being left
to try their luck since it arrived in the country in the year 2012. Uber Australia has many
employees whose grievances must get listened to for the company to thrive and enhance
sustainability in the market.
 The employer should also meet the employees’ demand proper and fair treatment by the
management of the company so as to get motivated and gain morale for performing their
duties to the customers appropriately.
In conclusion, every work needs attention and whenever the rights of the workers are violated, it
automatically translates to the reduced overall output at the end of the financial period. Human
resource department has the mandate to ensure that everything goes well and no one is misused
in whichever circumstance, may it be the workers or the managers. The reason as to why many
employees are violated is only because they have not teamed up and raised their issues to the
management as it is said that a divided house cannot stand by itself.

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References
Cogger, H. (2014). Reptiles and amphibians of Australia. Csiro Publishing.
Davis, P. (2016). How Do Sharing Economy Companies Grow? A Comparison of Internal and
External Growth Patterns of Airbnb and Uber.
Hatzinger, M., Fesenko, A., & Sohn, M. (2014). The first human laparoscopy and NOTES
operation: Dimitrij Oscarovic Ott (1855-1929). Urologia Internationalis, 92(4), 387-391.
Lee, H., & Osborne, M. (2017). Organisational redesign for the digital age. Governance
Directions, 69(7), 415.
Mattern, S. (2017). Mapping’s Intelligent Agents. Places Journal.
Michael, K. (2016). When Uber Cars Become Driverless:\" They Won't Need No Driver\." IEEE
Technology and Society Magazine, 35(2), 5-10.
Nicholson, D., Pekarek, A., & Gahan, P. (2017). Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in
2016. Journal of Industrial Relations, 0022185617697760.
Palmer, G. (2017). Energetic Implications of a Post-industrial Information Economy: The Case
Study of Australia. BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality, 2(2), 5.

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Plenter, F., Fielt, E., Hoffen, M., Chasin, F., & Rosemann, M. (2017). Repainting the business
model canvas for peer-to-peer sharing and collaborative consumption
Rimmer, M. (2017). Intellectual property and self-driving cars: Waymo vs Uber: Supplementary
submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation,
Science and Resources' inquiry into the social issues relating to land-based driverless
vehicles in Australia.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016). Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge. Weber, W., Festing, M., & Dowling, P. J. (Eds.). (2013). Management and
International Review: Cross-Cultural and Comparative International Human Resource
Management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Warhurst, C., Mathieu, C., & Wright, S. (2017). Workplace Innovation and the Quality of
Working Life in an Age of Uberisation. In Workplace Innovation (pp. 245-259). Springer
International Publishing.

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