{"id":848801,"date":"2026-08-09T06:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848801\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T06:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T06:02:13","slug":"hospitality-recruitment-app-supp-calls-gig-workers-contractors-some-users-say-it-leads-to-casual-work-without-entitlements-gig-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848801\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality recruitment app Supp calls gig-workers contractors. Some users say it leads to casual work without entitlements | Gig economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns have been raised that workers using an increasingly popular Australian hospitality gig-work<\/a> app may be missing out on entitlements such as superannuation by being hired as \u201cindependent contractors\u201d, similar to delivery riders.<\/p>\n

Launched in Melbourne in 2017, Supp describes itself as a \u201cjobs marketplace\u201d, where hospitality businesses can advertise available shifts to potential workers at an hourly rate, and where workers can secure ad-hoc employment. It was created by Kate and Cameron Reid, the owners of Lune Croissanterie, who maintain a financial stake in the company but are no longer on its board.<\/p>\n

It has since expanded across Australia and the US, with the company claiming it was used by about 15,000 venues and 200,000 workers.<\/p>\n

Businesses pay workers through the app, with Supp adding a 12% surcharge as its service fee and sending workers payment advice and summaries at the end of the financial year.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

But Supp requires workers to have their own ABN, and describes them as individual contractors \u2013 not casual employees \u2013 to the hospitality businesses that hire them through the platform.<\/p>\n

Supp has rejected any suggestion that it has misrepresented the working relationship facilitated through the app.<\/p>\n

But concerns have been raised by a worker, Daniel McBurnie, who began investigating whether he was entitled to superannuation for shifts obtained through the app from 2021.<\/p>\n

Those shifts \u2013 including bartending, popcorn-selling, front-of-house and table-waiting \u2013 involved the same kinds of labour McBurnie said he had previously performed in hospitality.<\/p>\n

McBurnie said he was hired as an individual contractor \u2013 rather than a casual employee \u2013 for 15 different companies through Supp.<\/p>\n

He said he was never paid superannuation for any of those shifts, and that there was no mechanism within the app for businesses to collect that information or for him to provide it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospitality workers coming in to do a barista shift \u2013 they don\u2019t have autonomy,\u201d McBurnie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not setting their [pay] rate, they\u2019re not setting their hours. They are reporting to a supervisor, they\u2019re carrying out the tasks delegated to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supp rejects \u2018sham contracting\u2019 allegations<\/p>\n

Casual employees have more workplace entitlements than independent contractors, including minimum rates of pay and casual loading, penalty rates, rest breaks, superannuation, and protection from unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n

There are also more obligations on employers, such as record-keeping requirements.<\/p>\n

Independent contractors who are paid mainly for their labour are also entitled to receive superannuation, according to the Australian Tax Office<\/a>. There have also been moves to provide other entitlements for gig-workers, such as in the food delivery sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McBurnie was worried the app could enable widespread mis-classification of casual workers as independent contractors, and that hundreds of thousands of workers may be missing out on workplace entitlements and protection as a result.<\/p>\n

Misrepresenting an employment relationship as an independent contracting relationship \u2013 known as \u201csham contracting\u201d \u2013 is unlawful under the Fair Work Act and can attract penalties of up to $546,000 for large businesses. Third parties involved in contraventions can also be liable.<\/p>\n

Supp\u2019s chief executive, Jordan Murray, said the company rejected and denied \u201cany suggestions and\/or allegations made or raised in relation to misrepresentation of the working relationship arranged through Supp\u201d and \u201cany sham contracting allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSupp engages constructively with regulators and supports clear, workable standards for independent work on digital platforms,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the law evolves we will keep adapting the platform with it, including tools that help businesses meet obligations where they apply.\u201d<\/p>\n

The app\u2019s co-founder, Cameron Reid, said: \u201cLune regularly uses Supp, and is confident to do so due to Supp\u2019s regular legal compliance reviews, its diligent work with regulators, and the insurance and support offered to both sides of the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Deserves close scrutiny\u2019<\/p>\n

Imogen Szumer, a senior associate at law firm Maurice Blackburn, said the way Supp described the workplace relationship was \u201cpeculiar, looking at the type of work that this is\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because the website or the app is saying that it\u2019s an individual contractor relationship, doesn\u2019t mean that it is. How the parties describe the relationship is one factor, but it is not determinative. And that\u2019s obviously important in the employment relationship, which is inherently an unequal one,\u201d Szumer said.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bWe have strict rules in this country governing the employment relationship and which provide important protections for employees. Where you have the business or the app provider saying that their arrangement falls outside the remit of our employment laws, that deserves close scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Szumer said if workers showed up to shifts at times set by the business, used its tools and equipment, were subject to its control and direction the entire time, including complying with its policies, procedures and dress standard, \u201clooking at all the circumstances, a court might find that, in actuality, the hospitality business is employing these workers on a casual basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markHospo work is largely the same everywhere you go \u2013 with similar procedures and tasks.Bartender Miranda Roop<\/p>\n

Three other Supp users who spoke to Guardian Australia said they had not received superannuation or other entitlements.<\/p>\n

A Melbourne bartender, Fred Siggins, said he had taken on bartending work at events with a company that used Supp as a payment platform for ad-hoc roles. He did not receive superannuation for those shifts, but said it had not concerned him as he had been in a position to negotiate a high rate for the work.<\/p>\n

Miranda Roop used Supp to pick up bartending and front-of-house shifts after moving to Australia in November.<\/p>\n

The work was no different to roles she obtained through word-of-mouth or other means, she said, but in other circumstances she was usually brought on as a casual employee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospo work is largely the same everywhere you go \u2013 with similar procedures and tasks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another worker, who spoke to the Guardian on condition that his name not be published, said he had used Supp to find extra shifts intermittently between 2022 and 2025, mainly bartending and occasionally as a barista or server. He had not been paid superannuation for those shifts and assumed he would have to pay it himself.<\/p>\n

\u2018Growing gigification\u2019<\/p>\n

McBurnie said the app was becoming \u201cthe new go-to\u201d in hospitality.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see some venues that have used it literally thousands of times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Pat O\u2019Donnell, director of casino, pubs and clubs at the United Workers Union, said convenience for employers should not come at the expense of workers\u2019 rights, security or fair treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlarm bells should ring whenever workers are told they need an ABN, or they must become a sole trader, to pick up a shift in a hospitality venue,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnited Workers Union is concerned by the growing gigification of hospitality work. Workers deserve secure jobs, fair pay and the protections that come with proper employment, not arrangements that shift risk on to workers to maximise flexibility for businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

McBurnie has called for the Fair Work Ombudsman to independently audit the platform and its use by businesses to source labour, saying many workers lacked the knowledge and confidence to take it on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a more fair way to go about it rather than getting a really vulnerable section of the workforce to dispute their claims individually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Fair Work Ombudsman refused to comment on Supp specifically, and encouraged workers with concerns to contact them or their union directly.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story? Contact: stephanie.convery@theguardian.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns have been raised that workers using an increasingly popular Australian hospitality gig-work app may be missing out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-848801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}