New minimum standards will give food delivery workers an earnings floor, accident cover and clearer workplace protections. The changes also test years of warnings that regulating gig work would send delivery prices soaring.

From Monday, 17 August, thousands of food delivery workers across Australia will benefit from new workplace protections – including new minimum hourly rates of pay.

That’s because on Tuesday, a new minimum standards order was handed down by an expert panel of the Fair Work Commission. The order covers ’employee-like’ workers at digital on-demand delivery platforms.

This is the first order of its kind, and as such it sets a benchmark for separate applications currently underway covering rideshare and parcel delivery workers.

It is the result of almost two years of negotiations between the Transport Workers’ Union and two major platforms, Uber Eats and DoorDash, through proceedings at the Fair Work Commission. While these groups ultimately managed to reach a consensus about the new protections, the reforms weren’t always warmly welcomed.

So, what’s actually changing for on-demand delivery workers? And what could it mean for the price of food deliveries?

New minimum standards

The major change for food delivery workers is that the ‘interim’ minimum standard order will create a new ’earnings floor’. This won’t work in quite the same way as a minimum wage for employees.

Workers will be entitled to a minimum hourly rate for their ’engaged time’: the period between accepting a delivery and completing it.

These minimum rates........

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