2019 Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 82-94
Though their working times are variable and pay low, dependent contractors are excluded from labor law coverage. However, the Abe administration, which recently announced its “Work Style Reform” campaign to revitalize Japanese employment practices, aims at expanding the employment of persons not in official employment relationships. For this reason, new policies to protect dependent contractors are urgently needed.But there are almost no protective policies for dependent contractors in Japan, so these workers are forced to file lawsuits to gain appropriate employee rights. In other words, even a dependent contractor who works long hours for low pay cannot have his/her fundamental worker rights acknowledged without winning in court.I describe the conditions concerning an employee by examining legal struggles. This enables me to grasp the conditions of the dependent contractor relationship to complement the quantitative information. Finally, I emphasize that this study is important for understanding what protective policies are necessary to supply dependent contractors.
Annals of the Society for the Study of Social Policy
