Uber driver accused of harassing teen to be paid $300 a week while banned

An Uber driver accused of harassing a 15-year-old girl has been forced to stay off the app on the eve of new rules which have made it easier for digital platforms to remove workers accused of sexual misconduct.

But the Fair Work Commission ordered the ridesharing platform to pay the driver $300 a week until the workplace umpire decides whether his account should remain deactivated.

This masthead revealed in February that rideshare drivers facing multiple accusations of misconduct were being allowed back onto the road by the commission under labour laws designed to protect gig economy workers.

That prompted the government to change the rules this month to make clear that drivers who have a pattern of sexual misconduct complaints should be removed from gig platforms, without the operators having to prove every individual case, or to put details of every allegation to them.

Amid that change, on Monday the Fair Work Commission paused a previous ruling which ordered Uber to reinstate a driver who it booted from the platform after two separate complaints made by passengers about his conduct.

One complaint in December alleged the Perth driver had asked a 15-year-old female passenger to follow him on social media. A second complaint, about a week later, accused him of touching another female passenger’s upper thigh while driving, obtaining her phone number and visiting her location after completing the trip.

The driver – who applied to the commission for his deactivation to be overturned – denied all allegations except visiting the second passenger after completing work, saying the passenger had contacted him and invited him.

In the initial ruling on June 8, the commission concluded the driver had been unfairly deactivated and ordered Uber to reactivate his account and compensate him for pay he missed out on while banned from the platform.

Uber appealed the decision on eight grounds including a claim that the commission misinterpreted and misapplied the “sufficient information” standard.

The commission had ruled Uber didn’t provide enough information to the driver about the allegations for him to understand what behaviour the warning and proposed deactivation of his account related to.

Uber argued that it does not provide specific information that may identify the individual who made that complaint for safety reasons.

Fair Work Commission Vice President Mark Gibian SC said some of the grounds for Uber’s appeal, including whether it provided “sufficient information”, may be affected by these amendments, and that the rideshare platform had an arguable case with “some reasonable prospects of success”.

It is one of several deactivation cases that Uber is fighting before the workplace arbiter. Earlier this month, Uber appealed a separate decision made by the commission ordering it to reinstate a Melbourne driver who was banned after receiving 16 misconduct allegations including speeding, making racist remarks and touching a passenger without consent.

Uber said in its latest appeal that it should not have to reinstate the Perth driver while the appeal was considered because the complaints made against him raised serious safety concerns, especially for women and under-age girls who were “inherently vulnerable” when using rideshare services, particularly when travelling at night, alone or inebriated.

Given the nature of the complaints made against the Perth driver, a pause on his reinstatement was reasonable, Gibian ruled.

However, to avoid prejudicing the driver over the unproven allegations, Gibian ordered Uber pay him $300 a week, representing lost earnings.

Uber Australia and New Zealand head of safety Nicole Ashcroft said the commission had taken a “rare step” in granting a stay order, but that there needed to be more structural reform to legislation by the government to keep people safe.

“It is alarming that we must routinely appeal decisions to keep unsafe drivers off the road, and this decision illustrates that the current system is not fit for purpose,” she said.

Uber’s appeal is scheduled to be heard in mid-July.

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