'Employee-like'

100,000 (plus) hear the message – Self-employed under attack

July 6, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

Recently I was interviewed on Spectator TV where I explained the attack against self-employed people being prepared by the Albanese government. I presented a simple example of how the promise to provide ‘holiday pay’ was in fact a con that will take money away from people.

Someone has taken a 5-minute clip from the longer interview and posted this on Twitter. This has broken through the 100,000 views mark in just over 24 hours of posting and continues to grow.

You can access the twitter post here.

We hope this provides a simple explanation.

We started our campaign on this in March this year – the Be Your Own Boss campaign where we provide lots of detail.

We have many more direct discussions in the pipeline with Senators and MPs and their advisers.

War Against Tradies

June 29, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

Last week we discussed the common sense displayed by the Victorian government in its approach to the gig (‘employee-like’) worker issue. Yes—record in you diaries that we’ve actually praised the Victorian government on this issue!

But Victoria’s common sense seems not to be having any impact on the nonsense from the Federal (Albanese) government on the issue. We’ve been explaining in our ‘Be Your Own Boss’ campaign that the Albanese government’s ‘employee-like’ agenda, if enacted in law as it promises, will strip away the right of each of us to be our own boss (self-employed).

Be Your Own Boss

Our current campaigning is focused on trying to block in the Australian Senate the ‘employee-like’ legislation that the Albanese government says it will create this year. We’re having positive, initial discussions with Senators. But a lot of work will need to be done once the draft legislation appears.

Understanding the importance of this issue is remote for anyone not intimately familiar with the legal difference between the commercial and the employment contract. That’s no surprise. So, we need to keep explaining.

I’ve posted a piece on Substack where I describe the predictable impact of the promised ‘employee-like’ laws on Australia’s self-employed tradies. You know, the people who actually do things, like plumbing, electrical work, and so on. Yep, the people who actually make sure that all that stuff actually works!

The promised ‘employee-like’ laws will set up a framework that will force every independent tradie into the clutches of the industrial relations system by imposing a de facto, compulsory unionism on housing tradies through the back door.

Currently, tradies are their own bosses because they work under commercial contracts not employment contracts. The legal trick the government has promised is to create legislation that requires commercial contracts to be controlled by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). Effectively this trashes the notion and structure of a commercial contract, and by legislation turns commercial contracts into pseudo-employment contracts.

Once this is done, construction unions will proceed to impose collective enterprise agreements across the housing sector, just as they do with the commercial construction sector. Read the full explanation here.

ATO

You’ll be well aware of our long-running campaign to have the ATO treat self-employed, small business taxpayers with fairness. The ATO has just released an update to its Taxpayers’ Charter following a review. We had input into the review.

The Charter is supposed to lay out the ATO’s commitment to you in terms of how it will deal with you as a taxpayer and your rights. We’re having a good look at the revised Charter and will put together an analysis soon.

Common sense about ‘Gig’ from the Victorian government

June 22, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

Here’s one for the history books. We’re actually complimenting the Victorian government on its ‘gig economy’ policy. Until now we’ve been a strong critic of the Victorian government on this.

In July 2020 the Victorian government released its report into the gig economy. (Just to remind you, we explained what gig work is last week—e.g., Harry Styles, etc). The research from the report is actually very good. (7% of the workforce ‘do’ gig, but less than 0.2% do gig for full-time income. That is, it’s ‘top up’ income for the bulk of gig workers.)

BUT, Recommendation 6 of the Victorian report effectively called for the outlawing of independent contracting (self-employment). However, contrary to this recommendation, the policy now released by the Victorian government is very sensible. It doesn’t do anything to harm self-employed people, doing gig or direct work, but puts in place good protections within a commercial framework.

This is exactly the sort of thing we support and want to see. And it’s completely counter to what the Albanese government has plans to do, which will be highly destructive of small business.

Here’s the Victorian government’s policy. It covers ‘gig’ platforms (e.g., Uber, etc). It has six standards as follows:

Victorian Government gig platform code—Standards

Platforms should provide consultation processes, forums or committees to allow for discussions with non-employee on-demand workers…
Platforms should ensure that the terms and conditions of the applicable contract are clear and able to be understood by non-employee on-demand workers
To assist non-employee on-demand workers to make an informed decision about whether to accept work, platforms should provide them with key information in writing about:

I. what they will earn should they complete a job, and how earnings are calculated
II. typical costs associated with the performance of work
III. their conditions of work
IV. the factors that affect how work is allocated by the platform (such as customer ratings).

Fair and Transparent Independent Dispute Resolution.
Platforms should not inhibit non-employee on-demand workers from freely associating to pursue improved terms and conditions relating to their work arrangements, where permitted by law.
Platforms must comply with their duties under the OHS Act.

Now this is common sense, as opposed to the Albanese government’s planned nonsense.

This Victorian government policy now forms a major part of our advocacy work in the Federal Parliament. We’re actively talking with independent Senators asking them to oppose the Albanese government’s plan. We’re now promoting the Victorian Standards to Senators as the way to go forward.

Our campaign is only just warming up with a full range of trips to Canberra and other places organised and being planned. Many thanks to the support we’ve been receiving from many of you which enables this critical work.

Campaigning is under way—Defending your right to Be Your Own Boss

June 7, 2023 by Self-Employed Australia

We thought we’d give you an understanding of the mechanics of our campaign to try and stop the Albanese government from implementing its ‘employee-like’ agenda.

We explained early in May that the government had started the implementation process with the release of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEWR) consultation paper.

Our first task was to assess and respond to the paper. We lodged our long submission (11,000 words) to DEWR and in late May provided you a brief overview. The reason for the long submission is simple. The government is throwing up a concept—‘employee-like’—which at first glance could appear reasonable. But it’s only when you delve into the detail of what this means that a full understanding is possible. And it means a direct attack upon your right to be your own boss, to be self-employed.

The next phase in our campaign started last week. This involves focusing on the independent Senators that the government needs to pass any legislation in the Senate. There are seven independent Senators. The government needs four of them to pass legislation.

Last week we began the engagement process with the Senators. It needs to be understood that all Senators and MPs are incredibly busy trying to comprehend a huge range of complex issues. Our responsibility is to present our arguments clearly, factually and as concisely as possible. To this end we’ve produced a four-page summary of our position.

Last week we had initial discussions with staff of some Senators and had one Senator ask us to come to Canberra to explain the issues in person. We did this and had a very productive discussion. It was pleasing to have this level of interest.

We’ve been conducting pro-self-employed advocacy campaigns for over 20 years and we’ve learnt one thing. It’s essential to sit down with Senators and MPs and explain one’s position face-to-face. We’re committed to this. And it’s not just independent Senators we seek to talk to, but also the government itself, the opposition and independent MPs.

This costs money, of course, and this is where your membership fees go.

For example, a one-day trip to Canberra (from Melbourne) usually involves:

$500 in airfares, $100 for buses, taxis, etc.

And staying overnight in Canberra (if needed) is expensive during Parliament sitting days—usually starting at around $250 a night (just for basic accommodation!!!)

The government plans to introduce its contentious legislation later this year. To run our advocacy campaign, we anticipate that around eight to ten trips to Canberra will be required before years’ end.

If you’d like to help fund any of those trips, you can do so through our dedicated campaign membership link here.

There’s quite a ‘battle’ going on, with the ACTU (unions) putting out a very aggressive ‘research’ paper which attacks the High Court and is hugely misleading on many fronts. It’s this sort of thing that we need to explain to Senators and MPs otherwise the union agenda will prevail.

We’ll keep you informed.