Report Into The Victorian On-Demand Workforce

The IPA’s Submission to Inquiry into the Victorian on-demand workforce

The Inquiry’s terms of reference are very broad ranging. However, the issue being examined according to the Foreword in the Inquiry’s Background Paper involves “only a tiny proportion of those working in the labour market.”

The Inquiry’s terms of reference and background paper presume that ondemand work should attract more regulation. A strong imputation emerges that the Inquiry will find more regulation is justified. The themes of the background paper are that on-demand workers are open to exploitation, longing for the reassurance of a regular employment position and incapable of managing their own interests.

The IPA believes that such a finding and the associated themes are in error.

Almost all on-demand workers embrace this mode of work. It offers them opportunity, independence, a capacity to maximise the earning potential of their skills and avenues to balance work and private life obligations. For some, ondemand work in spare time supplements income earned from other work. For others, it is the path to opportunities in the international market place.

Prescriptive regulation of on-demand workers by the Victorian Government would be a retrograde step. It would risk suppressing creative work and business activity. This would have adverse consequences for the state’s economy. Much on-demand work is highly mobile and can readily move to jurisdictions with non-intrusive regulation.

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