“The Fair Work Commission’s Interim On-Demand Delivery Employee-like Worker Minimum Standards Order responds to identified concerns in parts of the gig economy, including food delivery and other digital platform work,” said Mr Collins. 

“HIA supports appropriate protections where workers have little bargaining power and a digital platform effectively determines their rates and working arrangements,” Mr Collins said.

“But there is an important legal and practical distinction between these workers and the genuine independent contractors and subcontractors who operate throughout residential construction.

“Residential construction relies on tens of thousands of skilled contractors who negotiate their own rates, own their tools and equipment, work for a range of builders and carry their own licensing, insurance and commercial risk.

“These are genuine businesses operating under established independent contracting arrangements, not employee-like workers.

“The whole-of-relationship test already provides a framework for determining whether someone is genuinely operating as an independent contractor. We should be very careful about creating new regulatory concepts that cut across those established arrangements.

“The Fair Work Commission’s order has been developed to deal with a particular issue, in a particular part of the economy. That is where it should remain.

“At a time when Australia needs to build more homes, extending employee-like worker regulation into residential construction would risk adding cost, complexity and uncertainty without addressing an identified problem.

“HIA’s message is simple: protect gig workers where protections are needed, but don’t capture genuine tradies and small businesses in a regulatory net that was never designed for them,” concluded Mr Collins.

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