Alex Veen

The nature of Australia’s welfare system is further both constraining and enabling individuals to participate in ride-share work. Hence, it is essential to consider and understand the gig economy, broader labour market, and welfare system as closely interconnected.

Ride-share work satisfies the needs for a large number of individuals from the studied groups due its relatively low entry barriers and its temporal flexibility—although it is by no means perfect for all.

🚙 Practical Implications:
Our findings provide important insights for regulatory reforms targeting gig work, incl. the employee-like provisions of the Closing Loophole Bill. These reforms should consider what attracts individuals to gig work and ensure that its positive aspects are maintained.

📚Theoretically, we advance academic debates by encouraging greater dialogue of job quality scholarship with labour geography. Our conceptual framework hopefully inspires others to further operatioanlise our broader and more holistic encapsulation of the factors that shape subjective job quality.

💡 Key Findings:
To better understand subjective job quality, we must look beyond the job itself and consider workers' life stories and circumstances. For our studied groups, this includes their interactions with the welfare system.

Together with Tom Barratt, Caleb Goods, and Marian Baird, we explore subjective job quality in ride-share work, focusing on individuals with disabilities, caregiving responsibilities, and older workers (45+) in Australia.

#jobquality #gigeconomy #gigwork #rideshare

‘Woeful Pay, But Still, I Enjoy It’: Refining Subjective Job Quality in Ride‐Share Work Workers who experience structural barriers in the labour market are overrepresented in the gig economy. There is limited research on how the broader context of labour markets and welfare systems shap...

Why do some workers love a job or gig, while others loathe it?

🚨 NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨

‘Woeful Pay, But Still, I Enjoy It’: Refining Subjective Job Quality in Ride-Share Work

👉 Read the full paper now (Open Access) in New Technology, Work and Employment: doi.org/10.1111/ntwe...

If anything, it underscores the challenges around institutionalising gig work as employment under the Australian industrial relations system.

#gigeconomy #industrialrelations #platforms #

Note: On the 3rd of June 2025 Menulog formally withdrew its modern award application. With the paper already accepted and in production at that stage, this final development is not captured in the paper. It does, however, not affect our insights and conclusions.

🔍 While most research focuses on success stories, we show how unsuccessful efforts can offer powerful insights—both for policy and theory.

The paper traces this rare case of a platform seeking to transition to an employment model and treat gig workers as employees. We explore what it reveals about the nature of Australia’s industrial relations system, as well as its (in)ability to accommodate new forms of work.

(Institutionally) working Australia's gig economy into employment: Analysing Menulog's modern award application - Tom Barratt, Alex Veen, Caleb Goods, 2025 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 proces...

📢New Paper Alert 📢

This latest paper with Tom Barrat and Caleb Goods dives into Menulog’s bold, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to bring food delivery work under a new modern award — i.e., bring the work under the coverage of Australia's industrial relations system.

doi.org/10.1177/0022...