NSW Parliament Point to Point Report – TWU response

The Transport Workers’ Union is the representative of drivers and riders in the point to point industry.

The TWU welcomes the report released today from the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the Operation of the Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016.

The Point to Point Act has not levelled the playing field as it was intended to do by the NSW Liberal Government. What it has done is leave taxi operators in financial hardship and left rideshare drivers without important protections for their safety, rates or working conditions.

The TWU supports a range of recommendations from the Inquiry which include:

2.134 …  The committee strongly disagrees that the taxi industry should be removed from Chapter 6 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996. Doing so could negatively impact labour standards for taxi drivers, by removing important employment protections which have been in place for some time.

The idea that the NSW Government removes Taxi Drivers from the legislative protections that have been in place for many years under Chapter 6 of the NSW Industrial Relations Act, should now be off the table for good.

For such an idea to remain on the table will negatively impact labour standards for taxi drivers.

Richard Olsen, TWU State Secretary says “Without Chapter 6, drivers would be left to fend for themselves in a labour market heavily weighed against them. Chapter 6 helps address the imbalance in bargaining positions that exist between drivers and bailors.

Unfortunately, some of the most vulnerable point to point workers in NSW are still missing that protection. Those workers driving Ubers or delivering meals to your door, are not enjoying minimum rates, conditions or industrial protections.

“They have no legally enforceable rights, they will be exploited and the companies involved like Amazon or Uber are creating a race to the bottom in terms of rates and conditions and industrial protections, throughout the whole point to point industry,” Mr Olsen said.

The TWU supports the following recommendations from the Inquiry for rideshare workers.

Recommendation 6 – 2.135 More work needs to be done to determine how best to protect rideshare drivers. While bailment reform may be one option, we recommend that the NSW Legislative Council’s Select Committee on the Technological Change on the Future of Work conduct an independent review into the employment relationship between rideshare services and their drivers to determine how best to apply employment entitlements to rideshare drivers.
 
Recommendation 7: That the NSW Legislative Council’s Select Committee on the Technological Change on the Future of Work conduct an independent review into the employment relationship between rideshare services and their drivers to determine how best to apply employment entitlements to rideshare drivers.

Rideshare drivers are not considered employees of their rideshare platforms meaning that they do not have access to employee entitlements.

The view of the Transport Workers’ Union of NSW (TWU) is for every driver from employee to contractor to have fair rates and conditions of work that ensure they’re paid for every hour, every kilometre and every cost.

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