How the Gig Economy Robbed you of your Rights

If you are a gig worker in the so-called Gig Economy, someone has their hand in your pocket. They have already robbed you of all previous hard-won worker's rights and are busy selling the idea of casual work as the new normal.

If wearing labelled

clothing is a massive hoax on the world's population, and I believe it is; then the myth surrounding the gig economy is a shocking fraud pulled by Silicon Valley sociopaths whose whole aim in life is to create an enormous pile of money from your labour.

The so-called gig economy is where you work for a company that takes a fee for every job you do without taking any responsibility for your health or well-being while doing that job. It has been hidden under the cloak of ‘convenience’ and ‘work for yourself’ rhetoric while systematically stripping you of all the rights won by unions over the past 100 years.

What a crock!

This stripping of rights has now extended to many businesses and sectors where the catchphrase is now ‘casual work’, meaning that they do not have to pay you the hard-won rights achieved over many decades. Sick leave, a permanent job with regular hours, penalties for moving your shift all over the clock and the week, sufficient hours to live, a wage necessary to live, maternity and paternity rights, extended service leave, superannuation, the list is a long and outrageous.

People stopped joining unions, stopped understanding their rights in the workplace, and stopped recognising the systematic stripping back of wages and rights until it was too late. The wolf in sheep's clothing had done its work. Supposed ‘freedom’ undid decades of hard-won benefits. Who better to take advantage of young people who don’t know any better? It spread like wildfire.

Workers, especially women working for wages that were insufficient to live on, adequate hours in a permanent location, with no job security, no benefits and no bargaining power.

So where we found ourselves was in a barren place. Workers, especially women working for wages that were insufficient to live on, adequate hours in a permanent location, with no job security, no benefits and no bargaining power. The gap between those doing the work and those benefiting from it financially growing exponentially in the past decade. Shame on us.

And didn’t the pandemic expose these workplace flaws dramatically? Casual workers are unable to afford to take time off work, so working while ill, casual workers moving between 2-3 jobs sites to work enough hours in a week to live, middle-class families being thrown on the welfare pile to their shame when they couldn’t work, Uber drivers working while infected because there was no regulation to stop them. One such driver started a breakout that shut down a whole state. This is what ‘freedom’ has delivered to us.

And a wealth gap that is shameful between working people and business owners.

These gaps are beginning to be recognised more widely now in Australia, but the remedies will take many years to take hold, even if they are implemented.

So, girlfriend, you will have to take action for yourself. There is a severe worker shortage out there. It’s time to take the situation in hand.

· Join a union. This can be expensive, and I don’t say it lightly. Not all unions are great, but they will give you a degree of clout that you won’t have on your own. Someone will be in your corner with you if the going gets tough. Check out the movers and shakers in your industry and talk to your co-workers about their thoughts. This may not be your first move, but it’s one you should have in your kick bag.

· Assess your skills and work experience. Get a professional CV or resume together. If you can’t write it, get a friend, or outsource it on Fiverr or Upwork. Insist on a native English speaker to write your CV and a generic cover letter. Any errors in these documents will kill your credibility. The generic cover letter says you are looking for new opportunities in your field and will not accept anything less than a permanent, full-time position. Add that you have flexible skills and are willing to learn. You can respond to ads or take the initiative and contact places you want to work.

You are not a slave. You have power in this situation.

· If you have a pay scale in mind, keep it to yourself until you are in front of your potential employer. Have a figure in mind, but don’t offer it. You may offer to work for less than they are prepared to pay. Suggest the pay scale you are looking for if they give you a figure that is less than you want. Be reasonable. If they offer more but still less than you want, but you want the job, say that will be fine, but you will expect a review in three or six months. Three months is a standard probationary period for full-time work, so say you will expect a pay rise then if you are both satisfied with your work. You are not a slave. You have power in this situation.

· Project confidence, but not arrogance. You know you can do this work.

· Dress in what you think the appropriate work clothes are. You don’t need to wear a business suit to a cleaners job, but you do for office work. If you don’t have suitable clothing, some organisations will fit you. One is called Dress for Success, where they will find and give you appropriate work clothes for the position you are going for. They will also provide a level of coaching for your interview.

· Professionally present yourself. If you have purple hair, dreadlocks, facial piercings and tattoos, that’s fine. All of these things are pretty common these days. But tone it down for the interview. It’s not about you and your freedom. It’s about you representing their business to the public. Once they know you can do the job, they won’t care as much about your personal choices. Be prepared to negotiate your look with them and find a middle ground everyone can live with.

· Don’t present yourself as a sex object. Showing cleavage, lots of skin, tons of make-up and being all flirty in the interview will do a couple of things. Firstly, they won’t take you seriously as a human being with a brain. Secondly, you will be top of mind with some people, but not for promotion in the workplace. Do your playing somewhere else. This is work, and if you want to get ahead, you must be listened to and taken seriously.

· Assess your workplace for advancement. Is this the sort of place you can build a career, or is it just a stepping stone? If you think a promotion is an option, upskill in your time (or theirs, if they are open to it). Companies want to know that you are keen to be with them and are worth investing time and money into.

· Don’t mess people around. Suppose they offer you a position. Answer within 24 hours. If you are no longer interested, tell them as soon as possible. If you accept a job elsewhere, let them know.

· When you arrive for your first day of work, have all your documents ready, as there will be paperwork to do. Bank account for wages deposit, Tax File Number and Superannuation account. You have the right to indicate which super fund you want to use, so don’t let them tell you that you don’t.

· If you have moved jobs, decide on your superannuation provider and consolidate all of your super in one account. You can search for ‘lost super’ by entering that into a search engine. Your retirement funds will be far more valuable in one fund than in several. Make sure you are in a very low-cost super provider. Industry providers run by the unions generally have lower fees and better returns than commercial providers, but do your research and pick one that suits you.

And that, my friends, is the start of your new life. Own it.

Good news? Change is on the way. See this report from ABC TV.