Four-day week champion takes up fight for gig workers
Four-day work week pioneer Andrew Barnes has taken up a new cause: the rights of the “gig economy” worker.
The Aucklander gained global coverage earlier this year when he shifted his staff at Perpetual Guardian to a four-day work week.
Now, Barnes — who has an estimated personal wealth of $150 million — is shifting his focus to the rights of contractors; particularly those such as couriers and Uber drivers who do most of their work for one company, but are regarded as freelancers.
“In the 19th century, there was no superannuation or sick leave or paid holidays. People fought so hard to win those rights and now we’re glibly throwing them away.
“I genuinely believe that we need to revisit our employment legislation to ensure that ‘gig’ contracts which ostensibly provide flexibility do so at the price of lost employee protections, and on terms which favour the employer,” he said.
“It’s time to bring employment law into the 21st century and ensure all employees, gig or salaried have flexible working opportunities, but also the same protections and benefits. This stops arbitrage of hard-won, and necessary, protections.”
Barnes said contract workers had one KiwiSaver account and one superannuation account that followed them from job to job so why not also have sick days and leave days attached to them personally.
The Rich Lister sees a customer paying a bit extra for, say, an Uber ride, with the money going towards sick days and leave days.
Barnes met with Workplace Relations Minister Iain LeesGalloway over his four-day working week push. He said he would also seek to discuss his gig economy ideas with Lees-Galloway.
He could be in for a disappointment, or at least a long wait.
In July, Lees-Galloway said he was looking to introduce legislation to better protect the rights of independent contractors.
Lees-Galloway noted that beyond superannuation, sick days and leave days, contractors are not covered by workplace safety laws, and expenses can see their remuneration fall below the minimum wage.
“There’s a shared view that the current situation is not ideal . . . it’s not tenable,” the minister said.
The possibility of enforcing a minimum wage for contractors would be “explored”, Lees Galloway said, while the idea of allowing them to collectively bargain, would be “considered”.
But a spokesman for his office said that was unlikely to happen until 2019. Slow progress comes as the Government has faced business confidence headwinds, which may have made it more conservative about further changes to employment law — or at least seen it take its foot off the accelerator.
Lees-Galloway has also been bogged down with mini-scandals tied to his immigration portfolio.
“There is no doubt the Labour-led Government has gone very cold on employment law reform,” political commentator Bryce Edwards said.
The Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill, which is relevant to gig economy workers was now in the House, Edwards said.
“If the Government wants to make an impact it can simply make sure the bill passes without being gutted.
“However, the bill has been put forward by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, and the Government chose not to adopt it as a Government bill.
“This makes it much easier to be amended or voted down.”
Barnes got revved up about gig worker rights after seeing developments in the UK, where a landmark London Employment Tribunal could mean that Uber driver get the same rights as full-time staff — which unions calculate could be worth £18,000 ($35,000) per driver per year.
The ruling is being appealed.