Neil Sands
Brooke van Velden
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has dismissed suggestions that she is changing employment law to appease rideshare giant Uber, saying her reforms are aimed at providing clarity for the modern workforce.
“I’d make it really clear to everybody here, I don’t work for Uber. I don’t work for anybody but the government,” van Velden told Parliament’s Education & Workforce Select Committee.
Van Velden’s comment came after she took exception Greens MP Teanau Tuione’s question about whether her Employment Relations Amendment Bill had taken into account the legal action involving Uber now being considered by the Supreme Court.
“The opposition has made it quite clear that they believe that this is the Uber law. That’s not true,” she said, referring to the court case which centres on the distinction between an employee and a contractor.
“I’m creating this law because we want a flexible, modern workforce, which will actually be able to adapt to modern [ways] of working. That means that we need to get this distinction right for a range of different platform-related activities.”
Among the wide-ranging reforms in the bill is a “gateway” test that restricting workers’ ability to challenge their employment status in court.
As LawNews reported last month, van Velden adopted the four-point gateway test almost verbatim from a draft supplied by Uber, ignoring official advice to maintain the status quo because common law on the issue was evolving.
“This is completely separate to anything that’s going before the Supreme Court,” van Velden told the select committee.
The Supreme Court last month heard Uber’s bid to overturn a decision that four of its drivers were employees, not independent contractors. The court has reserved its decision.
‘Rebalancing’ personal grievances
Van Velden also addressed some of the Bill’s other reforms during her appearance before the committee, including barring employees earning more than $180,000 from lodging unfair dismissal claims.
She asked the committee to look at whether the threshold was at the correct level but said the reform itself would help give businesses the confidence to develop a new generation of leaders.
“I’ve had some conversations with people who have wanted to move on staff and are simply just waiting for them to leave. I don’t think that’s helpful for any business,” she said.
“They know that if they attempt to try and shift them on because they’re not working out for the company, that they might end up with a personal grievance and need to do a settlement and a payout above and beyond the normal salary.”
The Bill also tightens the rules around personal grievance claims, which van Velden said rebalanced settings that had become a major issue for businesses.
“There’s such a fear of going to the Employment Relations Authority that people are settling their cases before they get to that point,” she said. “So, there are people holding onto money within their own businesses in case they need a settlement if someone raises a personal grievance claim on the way out.
“I would consider that to be unproductive money, which could be used for the benefit of employees while they’re doing their work, or for R and D development.”
0 Comments