[ウーバーイーツユニオン、特別永住者の配達員アカウント「一方的な停止」に抗議] 1 October 2021

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

On 1 October, the Uber Eats Union, a group of Uber Eats delivery workers, [...] released a statement of protest against Uber Eats for unilaterally suspending delivery driver accounts of special permanent residents. They will also request collective bargaining.

[...]

According to the Union, in June, the account of a union member who is a Korean and a special permanent resident in Japan was unilaterally suspended, and the account recovery process was problematic. The Union protested to Uber and asked for collective bargaining, but was denied.

In this protest statement, the Union stated that on 1 September, another account of a special permanent resident was suspended without explanation. In order to recover an account, the account holder is required to bring a special permanent resident certificate to the nearest compliance centre. However, compliance centres are only located in big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. It was reported that the delivery worker living in Okayama had to give up on recovering the account.

[...]

The Union argued that special permanent residents have no work restrictions and can work just as much as Japanese nationals. Hence, they are not obligated to present the special permanent resident certificates as Uber required. The Union urged Uber to stop unilaterally suspending the account, compensate for the loss of work during the suspension period, explain the details of the document verification process, and stop requiring the presentation or actual verification of the special permanent resident certificate.

The Union Executive Committee Chairman Toshiaki Tsuchiya criticized Uber's response, saying, "This is not a request for a correction of treatment, but for correction of ethnic discrimination."

At a press conference, a Korean resident in Shizuoka, Japan in his thirties, who had his account suspended, spoke of the difficulty of communicating with Uber and going to the compliance centre to present the actual certificate, saying, "I have always valued my own descent. It's a shame that my feelings have been undermined."