One-sided flexibility in the workplace: Australian and UK responses

The recent Fair Work Commission (FWC) Full Bench decision to insert casual conversion clauses in modern awards,¹ and the Report of the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices in the UK,² are responses to the same world-wide phenomena.

Increasingly, businesses are wanting to engage workers flexibly: over the last 20 years, this has led to the growth of casual, part-time and fixed-term employment – and independent contractor arrangements – in Australia.

The most recent manifestation of this flexibility has been the rapid rise across the globe of the 'gig economy': technology-based platforms which match consumers to workers who provide services.

However, the Theresa May Government-initiated Taylor Review has noted concerns that some employers use flexibility to transfer risk to – and exert control over – workers: what the Report describes as 'one-sided flexibility'.³