(Institutionally) working Australia's gig economy into employment: Analysing Menulog's modern award application

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.