Uber Australia Dismissal Cases
Introduction
Uber is a company in Australia which deals with the transport of customers to different places. This industry links various drivers, ‘driver-partners’, who normally use their vehicles to ferry customers who may require the ride. It was initially started in the USA in 2010 but later copied to Australia in 2012 and has since flourished from then (Mattern, S. 2017). The drivers are not covered by the employer in whichever case, either insurance or any other work policy covers needed for their survival in the industry. ORDER NOW
Many organizations in the world don’t value their employees as required (Lee, 2017). A good example is the Uber Australia which has more than 60,000 drivers and specifically calls for driver partnerships. It has been reported that the organization is settling unfair dismal claims to its drivers claiming that they should remain contractual, a factor that has made them feel as if they are in exile and being misused for the specific reason. According to the AFR, the company has admitted that the reason why they treat their drivers in such ways is that the latter doesn’t qualify to be employees and thus they should remain to work on the contractual basis. Rideshare drivers association filed another case for being mistreated by the Uber Australia too. A spokesperson from Uber Australia was clearly heard claiming that the main purpose of the regulation could not be achieved whenever the drivers purposed to avoid the employment regulations and thus they should remain to work on the contractual basis.
Other companies have also evolved to challenge the drivers’ mistreatment and assured of fighting for their rights. Rideshare Drivers United pushed forward for an investigative exercise through an ombudsman to research and come up with a clear evidence where the conditions under which drivers are treated really meet the federal industrial relations laws of the Australian government. All these advocacy groups are actually fighting for the drivers’ rights, claiming that they should be treated as fully pledged employees and not as contractors. According to Fairfax Media, there is the likelihood of settling these disputes whenever these drivers get tested by authorities and acknowledged as employees. Uber Australia believes that their driver-partners can lose work if they are found violent or providing the unconducive environment to the riders (Sparrow & Chung 2016). ORDER NOW
The rise of popularity of Uber has been accompanied by various legal arguments and rulings from various authorities, many of them claiming that the rights of the riders and drivers are being diminished. One of them is that Uber Australia is not allowed to hold a valid workers compensation policy by the government of Australia simply because it employs its workers on the contractual basis. The company could only possess this policy if only its employees are permanently employed. This has been a disadvantage to the drivers since their work security is not guaranteed. It is the role of the Human Resource in any given company to ensure the well-being of the employees and provide enough security, both physically and financially, a role that has been violating in Uber Australia Company (Palmer, G. 2017). Uber views drivers and the organizational management as two different entities which cannot correlate in whichever way.
Drivers, in this case, are always at risk simply because whenever they encounter accidents while driving there is no one to cater for such expenses. They can only be helped by the compulsory third party (CTP) insurance policy which has no relationship with the company. This is the reason as to why these Uber drivers are seen to be fighting for employment rights. Many insurance companies seem to reject these covers when they come to realize that the driver got an accident while driving an ‘illegal’ vehicle.
Being on contractual basis means that the drivers are not fully employed and that their contracts can be terminated anytime, under whichever circumstances. This uncertainty keeps the workers always worried about their job security and to some extent psychologically tortured in one way or another. Uber had not actually been able to complete risk assessment tests on whether its workers are employees or contractors until when AFR brought it to light that the company deals with contractors in order to avoid various risks.
The company used a business model which couldn’t fully put into consideration the needs of the employees. The principal of Farouque doubted the business model applied and also claimed that a risk assessment was conducted and conclusions made were that there was actually a real risk in the endeavors of the company. He argued that the elaborate model was specifically used in order to clearly bring to light and the expression of the purpose of not adhering to the employment regulation rules (Rimmer, M. (2017). He finally said that the claims were all baseless and emphasized for an employment relationship in all organizations.
It is the role of the Human resource to ensure that there are good relationship and teamwork among the employees which is not the case in Uber Australia (Hatzinger et al 2014). Due to the fact that the company doesn’t see its drivers as employees, they have neglected this role which has impacted negatively to both the firm and the ‘contractors’ as they call them. For example, Mr. Harries, 39 who has been a driver in the company and could drive for more than 70hrs weekly had a story to tell. He explained that he was on his way to Brisbane airport for a customer when he was beaten on his face by a man who was a customer of another Uber car driver for no good reason. The other driver didn’t defend him despite having been worked together for some time. After reporting the matter to both the police and to Uber, no action was taken. Actually Uber deactivated him. This company used the contract factor to employees in order to evade workers satisfaction and not to be attached to various obligations such as employees’ compensation (Plenter, 2017). ORDER NOW
Failure of the Uber’s HR department to address the employees on how to live with one another has brought the company to a total mess. The company has landed into broader problems especially when the employees are dealing with one another. They lack the partnership aspect and don’t acknowledge the work of their colleagues, all the claims being directed to the negligence of the human resource managers. This company has had HR managers who are not serious and that’s why the drivers have been complaining to extent of leaving work when their grievances are not met.
Recommendation
Uber should employ its workers on the permanent basis, cater for their welfare and always listen to their grievances. Correlation should be enhanced among the employees for it will promote teamwork and realization of high yields in the organization. It is the role of the managers to set strategies on how the company should perform its tasks, laying its set goals and objectives as far as the human capital management is concerned (Cogger, H. 2014). Organizational process systems should be formulated to enhance good employee voice, which Uber Company has abandoned for long. The safety of the staff and their partnerships should always be the priority to any company. This is a duty to be carried out by the human resource department. It has been noticed with a lot of concern that Uber has rubbished these obligations and there seems to be an upcoming legal fight since the rights of workers should be considered under whichever circumstances. This misuse of workers has made the Uber Company to have been worked by hundreds of thousands of employees, with only about 60,000 being left to try their luck since it arrived in the country in the year 2012.
Conclusion
In conclusion, every work needs attention and whenever the rights of the workers are violated, it automatically translates to the reduced overall output at the end of the financial period. Human resource department has the mandate to ensure that everything goes well and no one is misused in whichever circumstance, may it be the workers or the managers. The reason as to why many employees are violated is only because they have not teamed up and raised their issues to the management as it is said that a divided house cannot stand by itself.
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