2025/06/24 by Tom Barratt, Alex Veen, Caleb Goods · 2 voices
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #Labor Movements and Unions
paper · doi:10.1177/00221856251343386
openalex publication_date 2025/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
This paper examines the modern award application made in April 2021 by Menulog Pty Ltd., an app-based food-delivery platform, and charters the subsequent process which was handled by the Fair Work Commission, Australia's main industrial relations tribunal. This, ultimately unsuccessful, application for a new modern award was part of an organisational strategy that would have seen Menulog treat its delivery workers as employees rather than contractors, thereby deviating from established norms in this part of the gig economy. By invoking this rarely used provision of the Fair Work Act 2009, the platform set in motion an institutional process that would have led to gig work becoming part of the Australian industrial relations systems. In the paper, we analyse and contextualise the progression of Menulog's application using a qualitative socio-legal documentary analysis, drawing upon institutional work as our theoretical lens. We contribute to pluralist industrial relations debates by highlighting the challenges that industrial relations systems and actors face in bringing neoliberalising work practices like gig work into the fold. Moreover, we show how the actions of incumbent actors and the statutory responsibilities of the Fair Work Commission shaped the process and contributed to a largely unsatisfactory outcome for all involved.