DECISION OF FULL BENCH OF FAIR WORK AUSTRALIA IN THE MATTER OF Dick v Voros. As foreshadowed last night, the decision in the Appeal aginst the ruling of Commissioner Ryan (who ruled that Dick was, in balance, an employee of Voros) has been handed down this morning. The Appeal has been upheld and the matter turned on one of jurisdictional competence. Was Dick (at any time) an employee of Voros. If not, the jurisdiction of Fair Work Australia is negated. We advise as follows:- * We will be making no comments on the decision until we have taken the time to carefully study the (lengthy) decision; * We will continue to seek legal advice (solicitors and counsel); * We will now be proceeding immediately to pursue this case and others will be mounted in the near future; * A large team is interested in stopping the exploitation of bailee taxi drivers; * Funds are available to further activities and solicitors and counsel will be instructed; and * The proposed Victorian Driver Agreement will be subject to intense legal scrutiny and it may well trigger further legal action. We have had extensive discussions with solicitors (some of whom appeared before the Victorian Taxi Industry Inquiry) and we are forming the view that the proposed Driver Agreement may be a close resemblance of the Bailment Agreement. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Bailment Agreement and, possibly, the proposed new Driver Agreement are both devices designed primarily to avoid paying taxi drivers wages under the applicable Passenger Transport Vehicle Award 2010. Accordingly, it may be that proponents of the new Driver Agreement may be required to give evidence before future hearings and they will be given the opportunity to explain why they think that the Driver Agreement is being put in place when (during the crafting of Modern Awards in 2010) the matter of taxi drivers was raised and the ruling was they come under the Passenger Transport Vehicle Award BECAUSE they are drivers of commercial passenger vehicles. We will be having a lot more to say about this decision and we will also be activating further options immediately. It is clear that the roll-out of PBOs on the single owner/driver model is NOW full steam ahead! decisions.fwc.gov.au/DecisionSearchResults.aspx
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 02:41:30 +0000
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