Australia is bringing in ‘world first’ minimum pay for food delivery drivers – here’s how it will work

Food delivery companies in Australia have teamed up with the Transport Workers’ Union to set new minimum standards for delivery drivers, including a minimum hourly wage and accident insurance for injuries sustained on the job.In a deal described as a “world first”, the country’s two largest food delivery services, DoorDash and Uber Eats, have submitted a joint application with the Transport Workers’ Union to the Fair Work Commission.The deal still requires approval from the industrial umpire, but here’s what we know so far.The application to the FWC comes after a wide range of workplace reforms was introduced by the Albanese government, which included empowering the industrial umpire to set minimum standards for gig workers.DoorDash, Uber Eats and the TWU have agreed on new protections for delivery drivers after years of talks

‘Replacing the old, stuffy department store’: John Lewis boss on its revamp

You may think the department store has had its day. Debenhams and Beales have left the high street, House of Fraser has closed almost two-thirds of its stores and Fenwick exited its prime London site.Peter Ruis, the managing director of John Lewis, has a different view. After closing 16 stores during the pandemic and shedding thousands of jobs as it fought for survival, he says expansion is now “definitely something we are looking at”. The 161-year-old retailer is spending £800m by 2029 on giving its 36 remaining outlets a reboot

Black Friday discounts fail to offer cheapest prices, Which? research finds

Shoppers holding out for a Black Friday bargain on 28 November may not get the best prices, according to Which? research that found none of the offers on the day were at their lowest level over a 12-month stretch.The consumer group compared prices for 175 home, tech and health appliances across eight retailers, ranging from Amazon to John Lewis. Prices were tracked over a full year, from May 2024 to May 2025, including the 2024 Black Friday period.It found that on the day of Black Friday 2024 none of the items it looked at were at the cheapest price they had been over the surrounding year.Britons are expected to spend £9

Motability scheme to drop BMW and Mercedes as it aims to buy UK-made cars

The Motability scheme to provide disabled drivers with subsidised cars has said it will remove expensive cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and aim to buy more British-built cars.Motability said it hopes that 50% of the vehicles it offers will come from British factories by 2035. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the changes to the scheme would “support thousands of well-paid, skilled jobs”, before the budget on Wednesday.The Motability scheme has provided support for disabled drivers for decades to help with the extra costs caused by mobility issues. It buys cars from manufacturers and leases them to disabled drivers

End the tax break that makes flying cheaper than trains | Letters

Your article (Why are flights in the UK so often cheaper than taking the train?, 19 November) states that “it can still come as a surprise when getting on a plane looks like the money-saving choice compared with taking the train”. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone, given that we’ve all seen eye-watering prices for rail travel and are bombarded with adverts for £20 flights to Nice. We’ve all read the stories of people who flew from one UK city to another via Mallorca or some such location because it was cheaper than getting the train.It does come as a surprise, though, that there’s no tax on aviation fuel. I’m the director of the charity Flight Free UK and I speak to a huge number of people about air travel

European defence company shares fall amid Ukraine peace talk hopes; Novo Nordisk reports Ozempic fails to help with Alzheimer’s – as it happened

European defence company stocks have dropped at the start of trading, and wholesale gas price are down too, after officials from Washington and Kyiv held weekend talks in Geneva over how to end the Ukraine-Russia war.Last night, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with Russia, after a row over an original US-backed document that included many of Moscow’s demands.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he was “very optimistic” about the progress of the talks in Switzerland.Rubio told reporters:“I think we made a tremendous amount of progress.We’ve really moved forward, so I feel very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a very reasonable period of time, very soon