Uber Eats Japan halts employing overseas students for food delivery

Tokyo, Sep 2 The operator of the Uber Eats food delivery service in Japan has halted employing new foreign students, after facing allegations that it illegally hired overstayers last year, a company official said Thursday.

Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014.

The hiring freeze, effective from August 25, is likely to influence many foreign students who look for jobs amid the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported.

A decrease in the number of employees could also lower service quality, despite the rising demand for food deliveries amid government stay-at-home requests.

The official of Uber Eats Japan Inc. told local media that it has stopped recruiting new overseas students because checking their visa status every half year in person and confirming their attendance at schools "requires a lot of human resources", leaving it difficult for the company to make sure compliance.

In June, police referred Uber Japan Co. and its two former employees to prosecutors for allegedly employing two Vietnamese overstayers as food delivery staff, which was in violation of the country's immigration control law.

Students from overseas are allowed to work part-time for up to 28 hours per week once granted permission by Japan's immigration agency.

As the pandemic has made eateries and other providers for part-time jobs stop operations or shorten opening hours, many foreign students are now switching to food delivery jobs to earn a living.

Overseas students who have registered as delivery staff for Uber Eats Japan before the hiring freeze came into effect can continue to work.

Foreign nationals who have no restrictions on working hours such as permanent residents and spouses of Japanese nationals are not affected by the measure, according to the official.

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