TVNZ+<\/a>.) <\/p>\nI asked Marie Aldcroft if the Uber drivers get annual leave? \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do they get sick pay? \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do they get anything other than the money that comes through the app? \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Marie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/marie-aldcroft-an-organiser-with-workers-first-union-FJHW5UBWAVFV3E66VCKOJW43OI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Marie Aldcroft, an organiser with Workers First Union (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Van Velden: ‘This area of work is only going to increase’<\/p>\n
In August, appearing before Parliament\u2019s Education and Workforce Select Committee, Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden defined part of what distinguishes employees from contractors.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, employees, you know, receive sick leave and holiday pay, whereas contractors that\u2019s part of their overall pay package.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Brooke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/brooke-van-velden-appearing-before-parliaments-education-and-KT7TSB2RDFAHHLELDV24AZGSMI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Brooke van Velden appearing before Parliament\u2019s Education and Workforce Select Committee. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
Is it? If Uber drivers, for example, are sometimes not making minimum wage, if their hourly rate can be as low as $13 or $15 or $17, how does the \u201csick leave and holiday pay\u201d van Velden refers to enter \u201ctheir overall package\u201d? When does that happen? And from whom?<\/p>\n
In the same hearing, the minister declared: \u201cWe know, or at least I believe, that this area of work is only going to increase, over time, as more and more people use digital platforms.\u201d <\/p>\n
But an increase in this area of work doesn\u2019t seem to be leading to an increase in those workers\u2019 rights. Van Velden\u2019s Employment Relations Amendment Bill is designed, in significant part, to achieve a greater and more declaratory separation of employee and contractor. <\/p>\n
\u201cFlexible labour markets are the best environment for businesses to grow,” she told parliament, during the Bill\u2019s first reading. <\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently a contractor can challenge their employment status in law despite being a contractor. This creates uncertainty and extra costs for business, potentially placing at risk various business models that use contracting arrangements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Here we are again, as with the Supreme Court\u2019s question about what might happen if Uber was required to pay drivers the minimum wage \u2013 this half sense of a business of such fragility that existing labour market settings are too tough to do business within.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to push the limits,” Travis Kalanick said. \u201cPedal to the metal.” <\/p>\n
![\"Travis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/travis-kalanick-sold-his-uber-shares-in-2012-for-us25-billio-UBA5T22DCVCAHECLREJW3BNLBE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Travis Kalanick sold his Uber shares in 2012 for US2.5 billion. (Shisanupong Khankaew)<\/p>\n
In May 2024, Uber pedalled the metal all the way to the Minister\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
Brooke van Velden\u2019s ministerial diary gives no details, other than that the meeting occurred, a fact first revealed by RNZ\u2019s Lillian Hanly the following month. <\/p>\n
But MBIE (Minister of Business, Innovation and Employment) documents help us to join the dots. An Aide Memoire, dated April 29, 2024, two days before the meeting, states: \u201cUber is interested in your priority to increase certainty for contracting parties… Uber views employment law as uncertain and proposes amending the Employment Relations ACT 2000\u201d. <\/p>\n
Uncertain. Uncertainty (the minister used that word four times in her first reading speech.) <\/p>\n
But broadly, that had indeed been ACT\u2019s position, and Brooke van Velden is an ACT Party Minister. <\/p>\n
![\"Workplace](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/workplace-relations-minister-brooke-van-velden-B23XN547JRCGHHZ2OSKSC45R24.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden (Source: Q and A)<\/p>\n
Indeed, ACT\u2019s 2023 coalition agreement with National lists the following ambition in the \u201cEmployment\u201d section: \u201cMaintain the status quo that contractors who have explicitly signed up for a contracting arrangement can\u2019t challenge their employment status in the Employment Court.\u201d <\/p>\n
So, ACT and Uber were already aligned, and also, possibly, similarly out of sync with the Employment Court, because the \u201cstatus quo\u201d ACT wanted to maintain had allowed four Uber drivers to challenge their employment status and win.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of the plaintiff drivers,\u201d Chief Judge Christina Inglis concluded, \u201cwas in an employment relationship when carrying out driving work for Uber and is entitled to a declaration of status accordingly.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the four drivers who took the original case, including Lalogafau Mea’ole Keil, who we met earlier.<\/p>\n
Uber appealed.<\/p>\n
And while the Appeal Court upheld some aspects of the company\u2019s case, the Court concluded, in four extraordinarily matter-of-fact words: \u201cThe appeal is dismissed.\u201d <\/p>\n
One aspect of the Appeal Court\u2019s judgment is worth quoting at greater length: \u201cThe real nature of the relationship between the four drivers and Uber was that the drivers were employees of the Uber companies at times when they were logged into the Uber driver app. They were not carrying on their own independent transport service businesses during these periods. The conclusion reached by the Chief Judge was correct.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that broad process of action and appeal, drivers and unions versus Uber, what was figuratively a head-on collision over the rights of Uber\u2019s \u201ccontract drivers\u201d, was the background against which Brooke van Velden and Uber met. <\/p>\n
Uber’s wishlist and van Velden’s proposed Bill<\/p>\n
At the Education and Workforce Select Committee in August, under questioning from the Green Party\u2019s Teanau Tuiono and Labour\u2019s Jan Tinetti, the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister made a kind of ad hoc rebuttal. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t work for Uber,” Brooke van Velden said. \u201cI don\u2019t work for anybody but the government and being a member of Parliament.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Green](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/greens-oceans-and-fisheries-spokesperson-teanau-tuiono-2H6YVNFI6RDB3MXJ4M6SWDF6CU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Green Party workplace relations and safety spokesperson Teanau Tuiono. (Source: rnz.co.nz)<\/p>\n
Tuiono and Tinetti sought to interrupt her, but the minister pushed on. \u201cNow, I think it\u2019s really important, because the opposition has made it quite clear that they believe this is the Uber law. That is not true.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Uber law? <\/p>\n
The Employment Relations Amendment Bill contains reforms across broad areas of employment law, not just in sections material for Uber and its contract driver model. It\u2019s also consistent with ACT\u2019s election policies, with the coalition agreement between ACT and National, and with the ACT party\u2019s ideological worldview. <\/p>\n
The minister insists that ministry officials spoke to seven unions. <\/p>\n
But, and law firm Dentons Kensington Swan described it matter-of-factly: \u201cThe first major area of change set out in the Bill amends the definition of ’employee’ to specifically exclude a specified contractor.\u201d <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s here, if you\u2019ll forgive a metaphor younger readers may find incomprehensible, where the Bill\u2019s language and the wish-list Uber took to the Minister are as difficult to tell apart as some of the Osmond siblings. <\/p>\n
‘Deep in the pockets of Uber – Government accused of copy-pasting company’s position’, RNZ headlined its story in October 2024, quoting the Green Party’s Teanau Tuiono. “What they’ve done essentially is just cut and pasted what they’ve wanted. They’re copying someone else’s homework, a company – Uber in this case, and just dropping it in there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Law News, the weekly publication of The Law Association of New Zealand, conducted an almost forensic comparison. ‘Minister adopts Uber\u2019s wish-list when drafting employment law changes’, Law News headlined their forthright analysis, in July. At the end of that article, Law News presents a game of \u201cspot the difference?\u201d, comparing Uber\u2019s wish-list with a section of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. <\/p>\n
Spoiler alert, if you\u2019re intending to play, there\u2019s hardly any difference at all. Law News even ruins its own game by telling us that. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden \u201cadopted almost verbatim law reforms drafted by Uber, government documents reveal.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the area concerned? That \u201cgateway test\u201d to determine if workers should be classed as contractors or employees.<\/p>\n
Is US business influencing NZ government?<\/p>\n
Edward Miller is a researcher at The Centre for International Corporate Tax and Accountability Research and previously researcher and policy analyst at (Workers) First Union, which now has roughly 1000 Uber drivers on its books.<\/p>\n
So, he\u2019s got flesh in the game. <\/p>\n
![\"Edward](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/edward-miller-3PPPN53GBJFHBHGCWJAC2ABHXU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Edward Miller (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
But he insists his position is empirical. How, he asks, does a company that, in 2024, earned $402 million revenue in New Zealand and paid less than $1 million in tax, a company that has gone to the Supreme Court to argue it doesn\u2019t employ its drivers, a company as foreign as moonrock, have, prima facie, an influence on employment law in this country?<\/p>\n
\u201cUber has been pushing the minister to adopt their version of what a labour law should be, to keep Uber drivers as contractors\u201d, Miller told me. <\/p>\n
\u201cCountries like New Zealand are in a very vulnerable position when dealing with a company of this size, and should be really thinking about, how do we get ourselves in a position to be able to push back against this? Because if we don’t do it in the case of the taxi and delivery industry, which other sectors of the economy is Uber going to be able to push its labour and tax model into?\u201d<\/p>\n
It may not be Uber, of course. It may be another company entirely. But once the pedal has reshaped the metal, the old shape doesn\u2019t easily return. <\/p>\n
![\"“There](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/there-are-a-lot-of-people-who-like-the-flexibility-of-a-cont-WKTC7RSBCNHBFDCBB6LALMAU3Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of people who like the flexibility of a contractor model,” says Brooke van Velden. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
A meeting with the minister in Meadowbank<\/p>\n
And so where are we? <\/p>\n
Well, public submissions on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill have now closed, and the Education and Workforce Select Committee is due to report back before the end of this month. The Supreme Court will release its judgment when the Supreme Court is good and ready to release its judgment (that\u2019s why it\u2019s called \u201cSupreme\u201d). <\/p>\n
And if the Supreme Court asserts that the Employment Court, then the Appeal Court got it right, and the four drivers, including Mea’ole Keil, were indeed employees of Uber, not contractors to Uber, what then? Will it be a precedent that opens floodgates? <\/p>\n
Or will Brooke van Velden\u2019s new Bill sufficiently alter the playing field for the judgment to only temporarily hold sway?<\/p>\n
And what does the minister say to this? After to\u2019ing and fro\u2019ing with her office, off and on, for three or four weeks, we were told she\u2019d be free at 3pm on Friday, October 31. The problem? It was 2pm and the minister was in her electorate office in the suburb of Meadowbank. <\/p>\n
We scrambled and arrived at her tiny office, upstairs in the Meadowbank Shopping Centre, by 3pm. Outside, the good people of her electorate visit Alex the Cobbler, Dental Wellness, Meadowbank Family Doctors, Elegant Nails, Ray Pharmacy… .<\/p>\n
Brooke van Velden won T\u0101maki for ACT in 2023. For the previous 63 years and 21 General Elections, T\u0101maki had voted National. There were times when it felt like National could have stood an ass in T\u0101maki and won. You don\u2019t underestimate a politician who snatches an electorate like that. <\/p>\n
Van velden told us she had another appointment at 3:30pm. Time was running out. So Phil set up out on the footpath, and as the afternoon traffic crawled past, parents and carers collecting children from school, early commuters heading into the weekend, rideshare drivers dreaming of a forty dollar fare, we talked Uber and the future of work. <\/p>\n
![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/minister-brooke-van-velden-talks-to-john-campbell-3G3NG7D77FGRTJHVPVYWABYUVU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Minister Brooke van Velden talks to John Campbell about the future of work in New Zealand. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
‘There are two people in a contracting relationship’<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of people who like the flexibility of a contractor model,” Brooke van Velden tells me, out on the Meadowbank footpath. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou think of mums wanting to go back to work part time. You think of students who want to be able to fit work around their student arrangements. There is a place for contractors in New Zealand, and I think around one in 20 people who are working in the country are contracted. So yes, there is a place for contracting.\u201d <\/p>\n
That, according to Stats NZ, is 144,000 people. That figure appears to date from late 2018. If so, the number will almost certainly be higher now.<\/p>\n
But even that is inexact. As Stats NZ pointed out in their information release at the time, \u201cthe distinctions between employees, self-employed contractors, and other types of self-employed people are not always clear-cut.\u201d <\/p>\n
And then \u2013 and the minister didn\u2019t refer to this \u2013 Stats NZ offered an unusually opinionated piece of commentary: \u201cWhile self-employment has traditionally been regarded as giving people more independence than waged or salaried employment, this is not always the case with contracting. Some contractors depend on a single business or organisation for their work. Anecdotally, we know that some are treated much like employees, but without the benefits and protections of an employment contract.\u201d <\/p>\n
And perhaps that is the issue? The absence of benefits and protections. And the increasingly large number of people working without them. <\/p>\n
I asked the minister about that. I asked her about the drivers I\u2019ve spoken to doing 50, 55, 60 hours a week, and sometimes not making minimum wage. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I can’t talk about any specifics to do with Uber because they’re cases before the Supreme Court, so I’m not going to touch on that.\u201d <\/p>\n
I asked the minister about the general principal of drivers, contractors, earning less than minimum wage \u2013 setting aside the four drivers in the Supreme Court case. Is that a model she supports? <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I’m happy with is people who are knowingly signing up to contracts that they are happy with. There is a place for employment. There is also a place for contracts. There is a place, John, I think the thing that you’re not quite recognising here is that, in order to be a contractor, there have to be two people in a relationship. That is the person wanting to give the contract and the person taking on the contract. Nobody is forced into a contracting relationship. That is actually the whole purpose of contracting. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are contractors don’t have to take on work. They can, of course, if they want to meet this new gateway test, be able to work for others. They don’t have to just work for one company. They can have flexible arrangements and choose and pick the hours and days that they work. They could also subcontract out their work. There’s inherently a good side of being able to be a contract.\u201d <\/p>\n
And the Employment Relations Amendment Bill reflects that belief. \u201cThe Bill\u201d, the minister said, as she introduced it to Parliament for its first reading, \u201cestablishes a gateway test establishing an exclusion from the definition of “employee” in the Employment Relations Act.\u201d <\/p>\n
Employee? Contractor? Court? Parliament? Minimum wage? BELOW? <\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen\u201d, in the words of the Spiritualised song, \u201cwe are floating in space.\u201d <\/p>\n
Below us, the planet as we think we remember it. Samuel Parnell. The eight-hour day. The first country in the world to introduce a minimum wage. Labour Day. Jobs for life. The halcyon days \u2013 were they as good and golden as the pining heart insists? <\/p>\n
Above us, what? What are we floating towards? Freedom. Choice. Flexibility. No safety net. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole purpose of contract work is that people do have choice\u201d, the minister tells me. \u201cThey don’t have to take up contract work.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, November 5, five days after the minister and I spoke, Stats NZ released figures showing the unemployment rate had risen to 5.3%, its highest level in nearly nine years. <\/p>\n
“Our government is determined that New Zealanders who are seeking work can find it\u2019, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.<\/p>\n
![\"Finance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/finance-minister-nicola-willis-TH3IEIIFOVFLVM365TQTO3OUCE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Nicola Willis (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Thousands of New Zealanders are seeking work in their cars. Are they finding it \u2013 or they finding the crumbs of a working life? <\/p>\n
And if what they\u2019re finding sometimes doesn\u2019t even pay them minimum wage, if what they\u2019re finding doesn\u2019t pay them holiday and sick pay, if what they\u2019re finding can involve working 50 or 60 hours a week, in a car they\u2019ve provided themselves, after which they\u2019re still struggling to get by, then they have the \u201cchoice\u201d, as the minister insists, to do… what? <\/p>\n
\u201cSo what we’re doing here is trying to make it really clear where is the boundary between a contractor and an employee\u201d, Brooke van Velden told me. \u201cBecause under employee minimum standards, yes, there is sick pay and holiday pay. That is not the case in contract law, because that is much more flexible.\u201d <\/p>\n
Flexibility. Is it a sacred cow or a Trojan horse? <\/p>\n
\u201cSo in general terms,\u201d, I ask, \u201care you happy that we have contractors, potentially thousands of contractors, earning less than minimum wage, no security of employment, and not getting sick pay and holiday pay? Is that a model you\u2019re happy with?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI’m happy with the fact that there is a flexible labour model, allowing for contract arrangements where people can pick and choose their hours of work, where they can pick and choose what they’re willing to work for,\u201d says van Velden. \u201cThat is a good thing to have in our system. And yes, it’s true, when people sign up to a contract relationship, they know that they need to factor in their own holiday time. They need to factor in payments for when they are sick. That is inherently part of a contract relationship, that is not part of the minimum wage or minimum labour standards. Those are separate ideas under the laws of New Zealand. It’s not a hard concept, John. You’re either an employee or you’re a contractor. You can\u2019t be both.\u201d <\/p>\n
Who pays for the convenience of Uber?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are thousands of drivers in New Zealand for Uber,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyer told the Supreme Court in July, \u201cand the barriers to become a driver are low.\u201d <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the model, in a nutshell. Low barriers, high supply. <\/p>\n
It works for passengers. One of the reasons Uber is overwhelmingly number one in the rideshare market, is that there are so many cars on the road. <\/p>\n
This is what Marie Aldcroft of Workers First Union told me: Uber \u201cfloods areas with numbers of drivers, but then that means that there’s insufficient work to be shared around for everybody to make a reasonable living.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Marie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/marie-aldcroft-RRUQZUGZNBGCJDX7XF2CZ4IOHQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Marie Aldcroft (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
So, when you order an Uber, there\u2019s a high chance there\u2019ll be a car nearby. If it\u2019s a good day, the driver may be dropping another fare off near you, but they\u2019re more likely to be waiting, unpaid. <\/p>\n
Five, six, seven minutes? How long is too long to wait for your driver to get to you? The model only works if there are drivers out. <\/p>\n
When you attempt to ask questions of Uber you quickly find that the company itself does not work within this model of instant availability. <\/p>\n
The company itself does not arrive within minutes. The company itself does not use its app to get someone to you as quickly as possible. The company keeps you waiting. <\/p>\n
And then the company does not arrive at all. <\/p>\n
This is a company that likes visibility \u2013 on its own terms. <\/p>\n
Bradley Cooper,\u202fJennifer Aniston,\u202fMatthew McConaughey,\u202fJavier Bardem,\u202fGwyneth Paltrow,\u202fJude Law,\u202fJennifer Coolidge, David Schwimmer, Victoria and David Beckham, Trevor Noah, Usher, and Charli XCX… Uber loves a celebrity endorsement. Uber loves some people talking about them. <\/p>\n
![\"Inter-generational](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/martha-stewart-and-charli-xcx-appear-in-a-paid-promotion-for-YZ2UZEBTRVHKTKQTJZPUHCCTUU.png\")
<\/p>\n
Inter-generational icons Martha Stewart and Charli XCX appear in a paid promotion for Uber on Instagram. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
And yet, and yet, here we are again. I phoned. I emailed. I gave them time. I stressed that there is immense public in the issues this story is raising. <\/p>\n
No interview. A flat refusal to appear. Again. <\/p>\n
As Uber New Zealand appears to have few, or no people at all, in this country available (or permitted) to do media interviews, I offered to fly to their regional HQ, in Sydney. I suggested that their roughly 11,000 contractors deserve to hear them respond to some of the concerns drivers have raised. <\/p>\n
They declined. <\/p>\n
So, I sent them specific points to respond to. And I asked how they felt about drivers earning less than the minimum wage. <\/p>\n
They largely ignored me. But they sent me a statement. A “general comment, to be attributed to an Uber spokesperson”:\u202f <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the journey Uber has taken alongside Kiwis since launching here in 2014. Today, Uber operates in over 100 towns and cities, offering tens of thousands of New Zealanders a flexible, reliable way to earn on their own terms, while supporting local businesses and helping consumers to go anywhere and get anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t give me a name. Uber, who demand more from their drivers thousands of times a day, didn\u2019t even give me a name. <\/p>\n
After their \u201cgeneral comment, to be attributed to an Uber spokesperson\u201d, they gave me, quote: \u201cComment on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2025 (to be used specifically in regards to discussion of that topic), to be attributed to an Uber spokesperson\u201d. <\/p>\n
Was it the same Uber spokesperson? Or another one? The Uber spokesperson said: \u201cWe welcome the Government\u2019s efforts to provide greater certainty around contracting arrangements, which tens of thousands of Kiwis rely on for flexible earning opportunities \u2013 nine out of ten say they would stop earning with Uber if that flexibility were taken away.\u202f <\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly support the intent of the Bill and the clarity it aims to deliver, but, as raised in our submission to the Select Committee examining the Bill, believe important details need refining to ensure it works as intended. Our focus is on protecting the flexibility and independence that driver and delivery partners consistently tell us they value most\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cFlexibility\u201d. That word, again. The drivers I spoke to told me they do like it. But the thing they would value most is being able to pay their bills after working a long week. <\/p>\n
I would have liked to have discussed that with Uber spokesperson. Bradley, Jennifer, Victoria, David, are you there? <\/p>\n
In the Supreme Court in July, the country\u2019s most senior Judge, Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann, looked out over the court and asked Uber\u2019s lawyer: \u201cCan I as a driver, give my customer my business card whilst doing an Uber fare? I think that’s not allowed, is it?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it\u2019s not allowed\u201d, Uber\u2019s lawyer replied. <\/p>\n
Just how flexible do we want our work force to be?<\/p>\n
Three years ago, then over the past few weeks, and almost every time I\u2019ve used an Uber in the period in-between, I\u2019ve asked Uber drivers about their working lives. <\/p>\n
Some love it. If they have another job and they drive for Uber for a few discretionary hours a week, they tell me it can pay for a holiday a year, or cover the cost of school trips, or some new clothes, or the extras that can make life seem less of an uphill climb. <\/p>\n
![\"Reporter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/john-campbell-ZJTOTVHAIFHKDEFEUYIFRJW67A.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Reporter John Campbell in Wellington (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n
But full-time drivers often describe something less liberating. Long hours. An hourly rate that is sometimes below minimum. And a sense of being trapped. They\u2019re almost always looking for other jobs, these drivers. They\u2019re often qualified enough to have other jobs. And yet here they are. <\/p>\n
Uber is built on the back of a brilliant app. But the app meets passengers when drivers are plentiful and cheap. <\/p>\n
That model is singular, consistent and unapologetic. Uber essentially went to the Supreme Court to defend it. And in territory after territory, it tests the margins, understanding and applications of employment law. <\/p>\n
In 2014, Nairi Hourdajian, Uber\u2019s former head of global communications, sent a message to a colleague about efforts to exert greater control over the company in parts of Asia, \u201cSometimes we have problems because, well, we\u2019re just f***ing illegal.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s far blunter language than anyone is using here. <\/p>\n
The Appeal Court distilled wrote in its judgment on the Employment Court decision: \u201cAre Uber drivers employees of one or more of the Uber companies for the purposes of New Zealand employment law, as the Employment Court concluded? Or are they, as Uber contends, independent providers of transportation services to \u201criders\u201d and \u201ceaters\u201d, with whom they enter into contracts using software and facilitation services provided by the Uber companies?\u201d <\/p>\n
In other words, who do the drivers work for \u2013 themselves, with the freedom and independence that entails, or Uber?<\/p>\n
Van Velden’s Employment Relations Amendment Bill suggests that Uber\u2019s business model may be a window into the future for more and more New Zealand workers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are the implications for working people?\u201d, Edward Miller asked when he spoke to me. \u201cNot just in terms of the wages that they earn, but in terms of their ability to have decent health and safety on the job? If you’re an independent contractor, what if the Uber labour model starts pushing into increasingly dangerous, high-risk sectors, construction, logistics, agriculture, all of these? It doesn’t sound too difficult to have a contractor model operating within that framework. <\/p>\n
“How long until Uber, or an Uber-like company, starts pushing into these sectors and demanding that it gets its way on the model of labour and tax delivery in these sectors?\u201d <\/p>\n
How cheap do we want our labour to be? <\/p>\n
At the end of her speech introducing the Employment Relations Amendment Bill to Parliament, Brooke van Velden stated that it will lift the value of labour: \u201cThe outcomes of these changes will be a more productive economy with higher employment, higher wages, and thriving businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n
On the footpath in Meadowbank, when I asked her about the Uber drivers I\u2019ve spoken to for three years now who work long hours, without sick pay or holiday pay, and sometimes don\u2019t even make the minimum wage, she talked instea about the contracting model: \u201cI’m happy with the fact that there is a flexible labour model, allowing for contract arrangements where people can pick and choose their hours of work, where they can pick and choose what they’re willing to work for. That is a good thing to have in our system.\u201d <\/p>\n
But is that \u201cflexibility\u201d a sacred cow or a Trojan horse? <\/p>\n
‘Nobody’s forcing people to work for Uber’ \u2013 Watch this story on TVNZ+<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT Minister Brooke van Velden’s says her proposed Employment Relations Amendment Bill will increase flexibility for both contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138,1122,111,43,139,69,2114,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-123386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-employment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-opinion","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"“Uber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/traffic-NGYGNBRKRBFSZJPDFZTI6AR6XI.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Uber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-in-2019-E56VUTF5EJGMBF2REOBJEB7PMA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Lalogafau](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/lalogafau-meaole-keil-PBTMFKKDMJAN5HFVN436274F6Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jon-duffy-ceo-of-consumer-nz-YQQBAXR33JEYNKDIKZXGZLNF44.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Uber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/uber-accused-of-not-paying-its-fair-share-of-taxes-in-nz-HIWWOWV7MZABRL7PL3J66CIHBE.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Uber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/uber-drivers-attend-a-union-meeting-of-drivers-in-kilbirnie-3LWOUBCORNFLZHRIXUICEWAI6A.jpg\")
<\/p>\n