SNA (Tokyo) — While bicycle delivery services have become an integral part of Japan’s human infrastructure amidst the Covid pandemic, the nation’s estimated 90,000 bicycle delivery workers have been left with few labor protections while performing their sometimes dangerous job.

This reality springs from what could be called a legal loophole which Uber Eats and some other major firms have learned to exploit.

Uber Eats calls its bicycle fleet its “Delivery Partners.” As this connotes, the Delivery Partners are legally classed as being freelance business partners, not employed workers who should enjoy standard benefits and protections.

For example, as “self-employed workers” or “sole proprietors,” they are not currently covered by Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance. Normally, labor laws would require companies which employ workers to obtain and bear the costs of such insurance. The Delivery Partners’ status, however, allows the company to avoid this routine obligation.

In response to concerns such as these, seventeen Delivery Partners formed the Uber Eats Union in October 2019, hoping to improve overall labor conditions for this emerging occupation. This has allowed collective bargaining to begin through petitions to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Labor Relations Commission.

In the same month that the tiny union was formed, Uber Eats began providing medical coverage for its Delivery Partners through Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, one of the most prestigious insurance companies in Japan. This medical coverage partially compensates workers for accidents and injuries that may occur during delivery. With some expansion of the coverage in October 2020, this program now covers compensation for accidental death and permanent disability, medical expanses, and other benefits.

However, the Uber Eats Union remains suspicious about the degree of protection that they are being afforded. For example, it points out that the compensation is applicable only for injuries incurred from the period from when a worker accepts a request for delivery until the delivery is completed (meaning that they are uncovered while returning home or to their next task).

Last month, the Labor Policy Council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that, as of this September, it will finally enable bicycle delivery workers (and freelance IT engineers) to apply for special enrollment to the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance. This is public insurance scheme providing workers with protection for the injuries, diseases, disabilities, and deaths that they incur during work hours and on their commute.

While this is clearly a significant step forward, the Uber Eats Union has pointed out that the special enrollment is voluntary and that, unlike the standard employment arrangements in Japan, it is optional and all costs are to be borne by the worker. The company pays nothing at all.

A separate concern raised by the Uber Eats Union is a lack of transparency when it comes to management and the new payment system for Delivery Partners.

In May, Uber Eats introduced a new nationwide system to determine the amount of pay that the delivery workers receive. Under the old system, payment was fixed based on the region and the delivery distance. Under the new system, which some workers have described as a “black box,” it is unclear exactly how payment rates are being determined. Workers are not even sure if the system has raised or lowered their overall compensation across the country.

In sum, Uber Eats and other companies in Japan have been introducing new business models that are increasingly blurring the definitions of who is a “worker” and what kinds of protections and compensation they are legally entitled to. The private sector appears to be a step or two ahead of both the government and the labor unions, and ordinary workers risk being left out in the cold.

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