The Luxon Government has once again shown its disdain for low paid working people, voting alongside the United States against a global treaty to protect gig-workers’ rights.
Despite New Zealand’s vote, the International Labour Organisation’s Standard Setting Committee voted to expand protections for workers in the ‘platform’ or gig economy, such as Uber drivers.
“Brooke Van Velden and the Luxon Government have just embarrassed NZ internationally by lining up with the US and big global tech companies and against almost every other country in the world. This shows where their loyalties lie, and it’s not with regular New Zealanders,” says the Green Party’s workplace relations spokesperson Teanau Tuiono.
“By lining New Zealand up alongside the US, and against countries like Australia, Japan and France, this Government is showing what sort of employment laws they really want: worse conditions for workers and more power for big international corporates.”
“Brook Van Velden’s law change earlier this year undermined a Supreme Court ruling and stripped Uber drivers and gig workers of the right to challenge their status as contractors. That law is grossly out of step with the rest of the world. “
“The Government needs to ratify this international convention, and then change domestic law to give people working in the gig economy the protections the rest of the world have agreed they need,” says Tuiono.
