Is There a ‘Public Benefit’ in Improving Working Conditions for Independent Contractors? Collective Bargaining and the Trade Practices ACT 1974 (CTH)

The legal distinction between work performed by an employee under a contract of service and work performed by an independent contractor under a contract for services is a central preoccupation in the field of labour law. This preoccupation has been traditionally focused on which workers fall within the common law definition of ‘employee’ (workers with a contract of service), which workers do not fall within the definition but should and what legal consequences follow from the inclusion of a worker within the labour law regulatory framework. Primarily the focus has been on ensuring that the labour law net encompasses those workers who are considered to be in need of the protections offered by labour law and debates over who those workers are. However, until recently, little attention has focused on the regulation of those workers who fall outside the definition of employee, where the worker's status as an independent contractor is uncontested.