Employment law needs a shakeup to prepare for the future

Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Rapidly changing technology is putting pressure on employment law and is risking workers' rights, an employment specialist says.

More people are signing up to work on casual and short-term contracts, known as the gig economy, to take advantage of new technologies that reinvent and make traditional business models more efficient.

But many contract workers have lost basic protections afforded permanent employees, such as the minimum wage, holidays or parental leave.

Social enterprise recruitment company Agoge's founder Andrew Nicol said the emergence and continuing rise of the gig economy had been driven by new technological companies. But there had been a trade off between flexibility and pay, he  

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'No one really knows what the future looks like, everyone's trying to guess but there is no doubt technology will continue to change entire industries,' Nicol said.

'Gig workers not working for fair rates is a concern and if laws don't change for how they're paid, people will be forced to accept jobs with lower pay so they're not replaced by a robot.'

Employment law needed a shake-up quickly to keep up with technological change, he said.

'Most businesses don't feel they have the responsibility to look after training their workers for the future. They're thinking just for the next financial year, not long term.'

In London, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that Uber drivers fall into a middle category between employees and independent contractors, but are entitled to a minimum wage and holiday pay.

Whereas, in Australia, the Fair Work Commission recently ruled that Uber drivers are not employees as they are able to perform as much or as little work as they like, and Uber does not make any payment to the drivers for the provision of work.

Employment lawyer Susan Hornsby-Geluk said says it may not be long before we see a similar case brought in New Zealand, after a group of Uber drivers recently took a day off to protest against low pay, which they argued many drivers were paid less than the minimum wage.

The Fair Work Commission found that the arrangement lacked the 'work-wages bargain' that was essential to establish an employment relationship.

Humankind founder Samantha Gadd said low and middle income workers would be most affected by technology change.

'If the gig economy is the future that's a worry because only a small proportion of people will actually prefer working flexible hours.

'Most people can't afford to raise kids on changing hours and working sometimes below the minimum wage,' Gadd said.

'They need stability.'

Gadd said the skills of the future were soft-skills.

'Our education system needs to move away from only technical skills and harness students' soft skills, that's creativity, verbal and social skills.

'Problem solving and thinking outside the box cannot be replaced by a machine.'

But Nicol said with the Government's planning and collaboration with businesses, New Zealand's workforce could become the blue-print for the future of work.

'New Zealand's size has created a real opportunity to work out what a gig economy will look like while still protecting residual income.'

For more information on the 2018 Deloitte Fast 50, including entry criteria, how to enter and key dates, visit www.fast50.co.nz.