Food and drink delivery application – MS2024/3 – Explainer

What is a minimum standards order?

A minimum standards order creates legally binding minimum standards for certain workers and businesses. An order may include terms about payment, insurance and other work standards.

Who made the application?

The Transport Workers’ Union of Australia (TWU). 

What does the applicant say should be included in the order? 

The TWU wants an order that includes:

• ‘minimum safety net cost recovery rates’ that digital platforms would be required to pay for food and drink delivery work. These rates would cover fixed and running costs for bicycles, scooters, motorcycles or vehicles, including fluctuations in fuel prices. They would also cover other costs such as mobile phone purchase and usage.
• requirements for digital platforms to:
  • assess the amount paid against the minimum safety net cost recovery rates and pay any shortfall to the worker
  • contribute superannuation payments
  • provide personal protective equipment
  • obtain personal injury insurance for workers
  • provide certain workers some forms of unpaid leave.
• requirements for workers to supply, register, maintain and insure their bicycle, scooter, motorcycle or vehicle.

These are just some of the things the TWU has said should be in the order. A full list of the terms the TWU seeks are in its application, which may be viewed on the Application for an employee-like minimum standards order (MS2024/3) page for this case.

What is currently happening in the case?

We have referred the TWU’s application to the Road Transport Advisory Group (RTAG). The RTAG has been set up to give us advice about applications that relate to the road transport industry.

The RTAG has set up a subcommittee to hear the views of workers, businesses and representatives about this application. That is happening now with meetings scheduled until August 2025.

You can find out more about who is on the subcommittee, when it will meet and about the RTAG more generally on the Road Transport Advisory Group page.

How will we hear the views of workers and businesses before making a decision?

We will give everyone the opportunity to tell us what they think before we make a decision. We must first decide if we will make a draft order. If we do, we will publish the draft order on our website so everyone can give written feedback. We will publish the feedback on our website and consider it before taking the next step, which could be to make the final order or to not make the final order. We might also decide to change the draft based on the feedback and publish the new draft for more feedback.   

Before we can make a final order, there must have been genuine engagement with the parties to be covered and we must have given people or organisations who may be affected a reasonable opportunity to tell us what they think.

If a minimum standards order is made, who and what does it cover?

The TWU has asked for an order that covers:

• employee-like workers who use a digital platform to get work collecting and delivering food, drinks and other like items ordered by a consumer
• the operators of the digital platforms that facilitate or arrange that work.

However, we have not made a decision to make an order or decided who or what it will cover. If we make an order, it will be after consulting affected workers and businesses. 

Phrases such as ‘employee-like worker’ and ‘digital platform’, as well as the other rules we must follow in considering this application, are found in the Fair Work Act. More information about what they mean can be found on our About regulated workers and businesses page on our website.

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