Uber Eats Delivery Workers in Japan Form Labor Union

Tokyo, Oct. 3 (Jiji Press)--Seventeen delivery partners in Japan of Uber Technologies Inc.'s Uber Eats food delivery service formed a labor union on Thursday in an effort to improve working conditions. Uber Eats delivery partners are not covered by the public insurance system for workers' accident compensation and the public employment insurance scheme because they are not Uber Technologies employees. The company introduced a system this month to provide compensation for injuries these contract workers suffer during delivery. The compensation system provides up to 250,000 yen to cover medical fees for injuries and up to 10 million yen in case of death. But delivery workers claim that it is not enough. There are over 10,000 Uber Eats delivery workers in Japan. They are free to work at any time. At a press conference, Tomio Maeba, the 29-year-old head of the Uber Eats labor union, said: "We have no opportunity for holding talks with the company. We want to first share what is happening among delivery staff (with the company)." END