The Need to Regulate Social Security for Workers in Employee-like Work Arrangements: Post-Pandemic Perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the precarious position of workers in employee like work arrangements, also in the social security sense. Migrant and care workers are inparticular affected, considering also gendered dimensions, and reported mental healthimplications. Access to among other superannuation, workers' compensation, sick leave,maternity leave and unemployment protection is a significant challenge for these workers –given the statutory focus on employee status required for coverage and the operation ofexemption provisions. The non-employee characterisation of their work relationships inwritten contracts may have serious social security implications, also in view of the positionsadopted by the High Court in CCFMEU v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd and ZG OperationsAustralia Pty Ltd v Jamsek. Recommended measures to address the deficient social securityregime applicable to these workers are contained in the Senate Select Committee on JobSecurity's Job Insecurity and preceding reports, relating to the reform of state-basedworkers' compensation schemes, the establishment of a portable sick leave scheme and enhanced access to superannuation. The recently introduced Victorian Sick Pay Guarantee scheme may hold some promise for some of these workers, as is the case with benefits for platform workers that may flow from the recent Uber-TWU agreement. Nevertheless, these promising developments remain piece mealed and fragmented. Benefiting also from recent European Union developments, a principled approach is called for, supported by the adoption of a regulatory framework providing for the decoupling of employment status from coverage by and access to social security and an aligned collective bargaining regime.