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The thin veneer of the gig economy
For millions of Australians, the gig economy has brought greater convenience to our everyday lives. At any given moment, in metropolitan cities you can order that late night burger without even moving from the comfort of your own couch or secure a lift home with the click of a button. It’s a new era of what we want, whenever we want it with products and services delivered to us directly.
However, behind the slick advertising and high-tech veneer of on demand apps and services lies a bleak, hazardous and often dangerous reality: tens of thousands of people working at the fringe of the labour market as delivery riders and personal chauffeurs. When you remove all the tech, the sizzle and pop, it’s little more than modern day iteration of old-school precarious piece work arrangements.