TRANSPORT INDUSTRY APPLIES TO MAKE SUPERMARKETS AND RETAIL GIANTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ILLEGAL SHAM CONTRACTS IN THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS

The TWU and ARTIO will apply in the Fair Work Commission to hold transport clients accountable for the first time for workers who are engaged on illegal sham contracts within their supply chains.

Sham contracting is an illegal practice that involves falsely classifying employees as contractors in order to strip them of rights including superannuation, a minimum wage and workers’ compensation.  The practice results in perpetrators gaining an illegal competitive advantage in the market of up to 30%, inducing a downward spiral of wages and conditions and putting lives at risk.

Road transport is the deadliest industry in Australia by a huge margin, with 122 killed in truck crashes this year, 31 of them truck drivers.

The joint industry application aims to eradicate this illegal practice altogether by requiring road transport clients to take enforceable proactive contracting, auditing and record-keeping steps to ensure workers aren’t engaged on sham contracts within their supply chains.

Following a transport industry roundtable held by Senator Glenn Sterle this year, sham contracting has been in the ATO spotlight, but transport clients have so far evaded taking responsibility for practices deep in their supply chains.

Major supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles, and retailers under the Wesfarmers umbrella, are working with the TWU on addressing fairness in their supply chains.

Many others, including third largest national retailer, Aldi, have refused to engage in talks with the TWU on safe supply chains, and contracts companies within its supply chain which have been known to use illegal sham contracting.

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:

“Sham contracting is an illegal and reprehensible scourge on the transport industry, and it is time wealthy transport clients were held accountable for stamping it out.

“We know that in the supply chains of supermarket giants like Aldi, workers have been illegally stripped of their employment rights.

“Workers are being exploited, transport companies doing the right thing are at a hugely unfair disadvantage, and wealthy clients like Aldi funnel the profits away from the Australian community.

“The entire transport industry is saying enough is enough: it’s time to put an end to illegal sham contracting, and those at the top of the supply chain have to start doing the heavy lifting.”

Notes

–              The TWU and ARTIO application also seeks to end the destructive practice of unpaid waiting time, which sees trucks being used as mobile warehouses, and good transport operators and owner drivers being unable to recover slabs of unpaid queueing time

–              The TWU has used laws passed by the Albanese Government to start reforming Australia’s deadliest industry, with a historic order recently handed down on food delivery worker standards, and others in the Fair Work Commission including for the last mile sector, maximum payment times in trucking, and rideshare