Key Points
- Police data has revealed a 15th food delivery driver death in Australia, which previously went unreported.
- A 29-year-old delivery driver died while at work in late 2022, but the death wasn't reported to Worksafe Victoria.
- The Transport Workers Union is again demanding reforms to enshrine rights and entitlements for gig workers.
Renewed calls have been made for urgent minimum standards for gig workers after police data revealed a 15th food delivery driver death that previously went unreported.
A 29-year-old food delivery driver was killed on the job in November 2022 after he was struck by a van while riding his electric bicycle across an arterial road in Preston in Melbourne's northeast at night.
He had crossed at a pedestrian crossing light while the light was still red and failed to give way to the van.
The man, who held an international licence, died at the scene.
His death went unreported at the time.
Worksafe Victoria was not notified of the worker's death as gig workers aren't classed as employees of the food delivery services.
Jump in worker deaths coincides with food delivery services' rise
More than 900 motorbike and bicycle workers have been injured on Victorian roads since 2016, according to police data.
This coincides with the rise of food delivery services such as UberEats, Deliveroo, Menulog and Foodora.
In 2022, about 143 motorbike and bicycle riders were injured on the job, a jump from 92 in 2016.
There were thousands more bike injuries recorded over the same period but it is not known whether these riders were working at the time of their injuries.
Five Victorians have died on the job while riding a motorbike or bicycle since 2016.
Two were food delivery drivers while the remaining were logistics drivers.
Transport Workers Union demands reform
The Transport Workers Union is demanding the Senate pass urgent reforms to enshrine rights and entitlements such as a minimum wage and rules against unfair contract terminations.
Current conditions put deadly pressure on workers to rush and take risks on the road to earn enough money and retain their jobs, the union said.
It said the legislation has received broad support across the industry, including from gig companies Uber, DoorDash, and Menulog.
The "horrific but not surprising" data shows the lethal race against time many riders face to avoid their accounts being deactivated, TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said.
"While unreported deaths and injuries of transport gig workers are beginning to come to light across more states, deadly pressures to make a living persist in an unregulated industry," he said.
"We've got a gig economy that has come into Australia over the last 10 years. And it has quite deliberately pushed workers outside of the protections that we've built up over decades, he said, referring to protections such as the minimum wage, sick leave and injury pay.
Victoria Police road policing assistant commissioner Glenn Weir said delivery riders are considered vulnerable road users as the gig and delivery economies continue to grow.
More than half of food delivery riders felt pressured to rush while a quarter had experienced their accounts being deactivated, a of over 1,100 transport gig workers revealed.
