Labour Standards in The Gig Economy

Changing Face of Work in Australia
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Changing Face of Work in Australia
Minter, K. (2017). Negotiating labour standards in the gig economy: Airtasker and Unions New
South Wales. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 438-454.
The article discuss about the gig economy which are dependent on the contracts of
individuals and not the collective workers. The maintenance and regulation are much poor that
ever expected. The workers in the gig economy deal their work an independent contractors and
does not follow and particular standard of the labors. It also discuss about the type of digital
platform offer jobs, the platform generally provides work to the low skilled labors with minimum
qualification. The features that the business of the online platform reflects are works are
available in fragments, labors get paid for each fragments and various facilities are available
such as leaves, compensations. The firms like Uber and Deliveroo sets individual prices for
particular tasks and firms like Airtasker seta the price for labors which has online marketplace of
themselves. The Airtasker has a business model and they follow them to regulate their work
throughout their business (Minter, 2017). The matches the demand of the consumer with their
range of works and assign works to the labors as contract basis. The Union of NSW has
challenged the Airtasker and formed a negotiation with them for the betterment of the worker
working for the company through the job posters. The agreement between them protects the
worker’s benefits such as wages, insurance, safety, etc.
The employment structure is of Australia is changing with each passing day and
innovated technologies. The article under consideration clearly reflects that the online based
platform and gig economy has changed the ways that the activities of a labor are carried out. It
has eventually benefited the labors by paying them for the section they work. Hence, this article
can have a great impact on the considered topic of the changing face of work in Australia. It
have reflected the benefits of gig economy and releasing the workers to work independently.
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Healy, J., Nicholson, D., & Gahan, P. (2017). The Future of Work in Australia: Anticipating
how new technologies will reshape labour markets, occupations and skill requirements.
Department of Education.
The article discuss about the automation that the emerging technology have bought for
the employment of the Australian market. The effect of the future on the working culture may
have two side one is the abundance of leisure and the other one is the widespread of
unemployment and creation of social divisions. The emergence of ICT have helps in flourish
innovation of technology more. The emerging technologies have started to displace the human
worker from the complex tasks. One emerging technology is the internet of things that have been
opted by the firms too for the management of works across their firm. Big data is another
example that learns from the existing data and provides efficient output better than the worker. In
recent times, the relationship of technology and labor market have changed extraordinarily and
the effect of technology on labors are appeared to be adverse and it has become a matter of
concern that whether the workers will have any job in the coming future or not. It has also been
evident that the rate of job destruction is increasing than the amount of job creation (Healy,
Nicholson & Gahan, 2017). The AI’s impact on employment is supposed to be creating new jobs
with the mixture of technology and human labor. The productivity of the labor is estimated to
decrease than the US. The article provides evidence through graphs that the jobs have declined
for the workers with the emergence of technology and the shift from routine jobs to non-routine
job is observed. The risks and transformation of the jobs are likely to increase and Australia has
30% part in it.
The article is very much helpful in terms of understanding the shift of the labor work
distribution by the introduction of the technologies. The job polarization have become evident
and it clearly shows that the face of work is changing in Australia with faster pace.
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