00:01There's been food and grocery delivery drivers working across Australia since 2012, and before
00:10now they were actually operating as independent contractors, which meant that they fell out
00:16of those workplace protections that a lot of us have in Australia.
00:20Now, with these new reforms which have come into place today, delivery drivers and riders
00:26will have to get paid a minimum wage of $31.30 per hour, which is above the national minimum
00:34wage of just over $26 an hour.
00:38They'll also be provided with new insurance protections, so drivers and riders will still
00:44need to cover insurance costs, but platforms will need to provide them with a reasonable
00:52amount of personal accident cover.
00:55There's about 250,000 gig workers across Australia at the moment, and one delivery driver that
01:03we spoke to, Alexi, the ABC spoke to, she was saying that she works about 40 hours a week
01:10and only gets paid $15 an hour.
01:14That means that she's only making about $600 a week.
01:17She says that's been a huge stress for her, particularly when she considers whether she
01:22can afford to pay for her rent and groceries this week.
01:26So she said that this minimum wage change will be a huge relief.
01:32We've also heard from the Transport Workers Union, they've spent four years negotiating for these changes.
01:39Here's what their national secretary had to say.
01:42It's not quite where we think it should be, it could be and probably should be even higher, but this
01:47is a massive, massive boon for these workers.
01:49They've struggled for such a long time, and they are such a pivotal part now of the service offering that
01:55we really want, right across the country.
01:57And the Federal Employment Minister, Amanda Rishworth, will be speaking with the Transport Workers Union later today.
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