NSW Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis visits Newcastle

Courtesy of Workplace Express

NSW IR Minister Sophie Cotsis says the Minns Government will only sign up to Federal Labor's proposed laws covering "employee-like" workers if they are at least as strong as those in her home state.

Delivering a speech at the NSW IR Society's Finnegan-Rudd memorial luncheon last week – 24 years after former Prime Minister John Howard spoke at the same event – Cotsis said that NSW is currently the only Australian jurisdiction with a "functioning regulatory regime" capable of covering gig workers and other "employee-like" workers through Chapter 6 of the State IR Act.

The Minns Labor Government made an election commitment to extend Chapter 6 beyond its current coverage of owner-drivers to food delivery and ride share drivers, while removing the existing exclusion of bread, milk and cream carters.

"There is no industrial tribunal available to gig workers through which they could seek to improve their pay and conditions, and no framework that supports collective bargaining which could address the inherent power imbalance between gig workers and the companies they work for," Cotsis told the luncheon at Souths Merewether in Newcastle, held in honour of former Federal Ironworkers' Association leaders Maurie Finnegan and Maurie Rudd.

"This fundamental power imbalance between the worker and the platform enterprise exposes many gig workers to the risk of exploitation."

Cotsis said Chapter 6 includes all the essential ingredients to regulate gig work, giving the NSW IRC the power to set minimum pay and conditions for various classes of owner-drivers in the form of award-like and agreement-like instruments, while it also provides for the Commission to resolve disputes by conciliation and arbitration if necessary.

"The bottom line for NSW is that whatever regulatory regime emerges from the Commonwealth reform process, it must deliver rights and protections for gig workers that are at least as strong as those found in Chapter 6, in order to be worthy of NSW support," Cotsis said.

In May, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said that the presence of Labor governments in every mainland jurisdiction provides an opportunity to re-introduce the principle of "safe rates" into the transport industry by the end of the year 

Mookhey noted that a similar law is being introduced in Queensland, with Western Australia and Victoria also taking action to "lever up" their protections for owner-drivers.

Cotsis also reiterated at the Newcastle event that the Minns Government in Opposition had committed to creating a portable entitlement scheme for gig, disability, home care and other precarious workers such as those in the community services sector.

This would "allow all workers in these industries to accrue annual leave, long service leave and other entitlements regardless of whether or not they are classified as employees," she said.

Taskforce will make interest-based negotiations "the first port of call"

In her speech to the IR Society's Newcastle branch, Minister Cotsis meanwhile said the interest-based bargaining taskforce appointed to overhaul the NSW IR system will bring together workers, unions and government agencies to create a cooperation-based approach, overseen by the State Commission 

"We propose to make interest-based bargaining the first port of call for bargaining in the NSW jurisdiction, and the taskforce will start the critical job of getting us there."

The taskforce is headed by FWC deputy president Anna Booth and former NSW IRC president Roger Boland and is due to report by the end of the year

The Minns Government has moved to scrap longstanding caps on public sector pay rises, offering a 4% increase in pay rates plus a 0.5% increase in superannuation.

Cotsis said it is significant that she also holds the workplace safety portfolio, describing herself as a "practical person" who wants "practical outcomes, consistent with my values and life experience".

"I'm far more interest-based than positional or ideological," she said.

"I want to ensure that where the State's industrial relations laws apply, that they are fit for purpose – that they do their job and deliver fair outcomes to the people who rely on those laws to work and live, to put food on the table and pay their bills.

"And I want to achieve this through cooperation, not conflict."

Cotsis confirmed that members of the NSW IRC will continue to list matters in Newcastle at the request of the parties (Federal Commission member Tony Saunders also conducts hearings of FWC matters in Newcastle).

Article produced by Wayne Dever

MRM Lawyers Partner Wayne Dever with Minister Cotsis and Retired Workers Compensation Court Snr. Commission Bill Hopkins