The opposition has set up a fight over gig economy reform, predicting government plans to give Uber-style contract workers more rights could hamper self-employed tradespeople, but Labor is pushing ahead with a plan to unveil legislation early next year.

Multiple sources familiar with confidential talks government officials held with major gig economy companies on Friday said it will hold detailed consultations this year ahead of introducing legislation to Parliament in 2023. The new laws are intended to ensure that people who work for platforms such as Uber are not left without key employment rights just because they are classified as contractors.

Senator Michaelia Cash, the opposition’s industrial relations spokeswoman, argued the government’s gig economy plans risked hurting other contractors.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In response to the government branding the gig economy a "cancer", opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said Labor was demonising self-employed people in service of the unions.

“This attack on the gig economy will end up being an attack on all independent contractors – like truck drivers, plumbers and numerous other hard-working tradesmen and women," Cash said.

Fresh Treasury analysis shows the stakes of the broader debate, as the services sector, which includes the gig economy, now provides 80 per cent of jobs in Australia. By contrast, the lucrative mining sector provides far fewer positions.

"Australia’s economy is changing and we need to change with it," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said. "That means recognising the contribution of care workers and the services sector to our economy, rewarding that contribution, and reshaping our economy to reflect their role in our future growth."

In advance of the government’s agenda-setting Jobs Summit in Canberra next week, Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott said enterprise bargaining was “broken”. Scott said fixing the system, which is meant to allow companies such as Wesfarmers’ Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks to tailor wages and conditions for their workforce, was a top priority.

But Scott rejected the ACTU’s push to allow unions to bargain across entire industries for wage rises.

“Flexibility and innovation cannot be unlocked with collective bargaining or industry agreements; it can only be unlocked through enterprise agreements that are company-specific.”

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke's department began talks on Friday with the major players in the gig economy, including transport providers Uber, Menulog, Deliveroo and DoorDash as well as services marketplace Airtasker and care platforms Mable and HireUp, which employs staff.

The talks will feed into the government's plan to give the Fair Work Commission power to award more rights to gig workers, who lack an entitlement to unfair dismissal protections, workers' compensation, superannuation from their employer, or a minimum wage.

None of the participants would comment, but multiple sources familiar with the meeting said a key theme was that the gig economy contained an array of businesses that operated in very different ways. Food delivery and disability care platforms, two attendees were described as saying, had different clients, services and prices despite all assigning work via an app. It made little sense to lump them together in the talks, participants said in the meeting.

Cash, the opposition spokeswoman, went further, saying self-employed people could set their own rates of pay, hours and way of working. "[Prime Minister Anthony] Albanese and the Labor Party have long demonised people who choose to be their own boss, and wish to effectively abolish the gig economy," she said in a statement.

In a speech to transport union delegates on Friday in Sydney, Burke said the new system would operate like a “ramp” in which those closer to employees would get more of the rights that employees enjoy. And he hinted a minimum wage could be among them.

“[The previous government] didn’t even think these workers should get the minimum wage, and all too often gig workers are underpaid and exploited because the law hasn’t kept up with these new forms of work,” Burke said. “If you want to get wages moving, we have to stop systems that undercut minimum standards.”

But University of Sydney labour law professor Shae McCrystal said people who were genuinely in business for themselves had nothing to fear from reform proposals because there was a clear line between them and those dependent on a platform.

"It's not credible that someone delivery food in the gig economy is running their own small business," McCrystal said. "They're working for the business interests of those platform companies."

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