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Elias Visontay

Elias Visontay

Elias Visontay is a National Consumer Affairs Reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Uber’s complaints handling processes have been blasted by the Fair Work Commission.

‘Illogical and arbitrary’: Uber’s automatic sackings regime blasted

Uber’s fully automated complaints-handling system has been scolded as unlawful by the Fair Work Commission as it orders yet another driver’s reinstatement.

  • Elias Visontay

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Two NAB workers have died by suicide in recent weeks.

Workplace safety regulator investigating two suicides among NAB staff

The federal workplace health and safety authority is investigating the circumstances surrounding two NAB employees who died by suicide just weeks apart.

  • Millie Muroi and Elias Visontay
The ACTU is proposing changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax that it believes would help younger Australians into the property market.

Major spike in home owners cutting sale price as ‘negative energy’ dampens property market

Asking prices for houses are being reduced amid milder appetite from risk-averse buyers

  • Elias Visontay
Pay increases to trucking firms could reverberate through an economy already dealing with stubborn inflation.

Government issues ‘emergency’ order for truckers over fuel crisis

A draft determination issued by the workplace relations minister late on Tuesday paves the way for trucking costs to be increased throughout the economy.

  • Elias Visontay
Rideshare platforms such as Uber are not using the Albanese government’s new gig economy laws as intended, Minister Amanda Rishworth has said.

Fair Work blasts Uber over a driver sacked for touching his groin during a trip

The ride-share giant has been criticised for its complaints handling processes, in a hearing where a driver produced a tube of ointment as evidence.

  • Elias Visontay
An artist’s impression of Coles and Woolworths stores of different kinds opening around Sydney.

Gentrified groceries: The new food line splitting your city

One in four Woolworths in Sydney are now Metro stores, while Coles is playing catch-up by growing its Local chain. Is the gentrification of supermarkets leaving shoppers worse off?

  • Jessica Yun and Elias Visontay
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Tim Doyle, co-founder of Eucalyptus.

Ozempic-style drug in pill form wins key approval

Australian tech health providers say they are keen to offer an oral pill version of the class of medications, which previously required injections.

  • Elias Visontay, Leah Douglas and Christy Santhosh
Expresso co-owner Jessica Kotzen, receives payment from customer Amber Boardman at her cafe in Brookvale, Sydney.

Businesses warn of price rises from RBA’s surcharge ban

The ban is expected to save Australian consumers $1.6 billion a year in unnecessary fees, but will likely cause a dramatic cutback in the generosity of card points schemes.

  • Elias Visontay
Uber’s new pricing amounts to higher costs for people who start their trips in affluent parts of Sydney and Melbourne than other parts of the cities.

Some Uber trips now cost 40 per cent more than others. These are the hardest-hit areas

Uber trips from CBDs and wealthy parts of Sydney and Melbourne now cost much more than rides of identical distance and duration booked in outer suburbs.

  • Elias Visontay
Rideshare platforms such as Uber are not using the Albanese government’s new gig economy laws as intended, minister Amanda Rishworth has said.

Rideshare giants failing to respond to predatory drivers, Labor warns

Albanese government to push platforms such as Uber to properly handle sexual misconduct complaints against drivers, as it concedes its laws need bolstering.

  • Elias Visontay