The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently handed down a decision[1] which concluded that an Uber driver was not an employee for the purposes of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), but an independent contractor, meaning that his unfair dismissal application was dismissed.

The decision, the first of its kind in Australia, only increases the tension between the rise of the gig economy and the traditional indicia courts use to determine the presence of an employment relationship.