What does the Uber Files scandal mean for workers in Australia?

A ruthless business model with ruthless methods. We have known all along this is how Uber operates. But what we haven’t known until now is the sheer extent of their manipulation. 

In case you missed it, news broke last week of Uber’s aggressive and illegal tactics deployed across the globe in a hoard of leaked confidential documents dubbed ‘the Uber files’.  

This investigation exposed how Uber undercut regulated markets like the taxi industry, breaking laws for years until they established a monopoly and applied pressure on governments and regulatory bodies to change the laws in their favour.  

The abhorrent tactics included routinely putting Uber drivers at risk of violence and knowingly driving them into debt in a long-term profit bid for the company.  

One of the journalists who brought the Uber Files together was International Consortium of Investigative Journalists managing editor Fergus Shiel.  

“What’s we’ve seen for the first time is a unique inside view of the lengths Uber went to achieve its goal. Those goals included courting world leaders, courting regulators and ultimately, in many countries, disappointing drivers,” he explained to On the Job. 

“In relation to workers, it’s really interesting. What we see from emails, presentation and text messages from 2013 to 2017 within the company… is a business plan that essentially proved to gradually undermine their own drivers,” Shiel said. 

“What’s we’ve seen for the first time is a unique inside view of the lengths Uber went to achieve its goal. Those goals included courting world leaders, courting regulators and ultimately, in many countries, disappointing drivers,” he explained to On the Job. 

“In relation to workers, it’s really interesting. What we see from emails, presentation and text messages from 2013 to 2017 within the company… is a business plan that essentially proved to gradually undermine their own drivers,” Shiel said.

The key findings from the Uber files focus predominantly on Europe, but there are shocking revelations about the company’s workings in Australia. Uber lobbied extremely hard throughout 2015 and 2016 to have regulations protecting the taxi industry overturned, devastating taxi drivers across Australia.  

Lawyer Michael Donnelly, who is leading a class action against Uber in Victoria on behalf of taxi drivers, told Guardian Australia about Uber’s actions to the relatively well-regulated taxi industry. 

“Taxi licence holders were often from working-class backgrounds and had invested enormous sums of money to acquire taxi licences in a full and regulated market. The practices of Uber that we allege were illegal, caused the value of those licences to be severely impacted,” Donnelly said. 

Regulations were there to protect drivers from violence and exploitation, ensuring workers could return home safely with a fair wage to pay their bills. Rideshare services like Uber have now established a near-monopoly in Australia, with drivers working long hours, covering exorbitant costs of fuel and only receiving a very small portion of the rates charged. 

A recent survey conducted by the Transport Workers’ Union revealed that rideshare drivers in Australia receive on average only $12 an hour, a figure far below the national minimum wage and not nearly enough to cover the rising costs of living.  

What’s more, 62% of drivers have reported physical or verbal abuse, with 17% reporting incidents of sexual harassment or assault. A huge proportion of rideshare drivers are migrants who have experienced a shocking amount of racial abuse while doing their job. 

How workers in unions protect drivers 

These conditions are unacceptable and union members continue to fight the hard fight against exploitation of rideshare and food delivery workers. 

We have already seen the efforts of the Transport Workers’ Union pay-off. TWU members championed a landmark ruling in the Fair Work Commission against Deliveroo and negotiated a charter with both Uber and DoorDash to enforce working rights of drivers. 

While these are huge achievements, the Uber Files have shown us that big business should not be trusted to have the best interests of workers in mind (to say the least). 

Whether you have tough questions you need answering or you’re ready to take action, your union is the first source of information about your wages and working rights. 

We stand together whenever members want help, but the course of action we take is entirely up to you.