Photo/Illutration A gig work app (Takaya Katada)

The increasing popularity of gig work apps, which connect companies with workers for short-term jobs, has created concerns about overwork, inadequate management and labor law violations.

In situations where workers use multiple apps to find jobs, neither the companies nor the app providers may be keeping accurate track of working hours, causing workers to miss out on overtime pay.

Under Japanese labor laws, employers, not app providers, are responsible for ensuring that workers do not exceed legal working hours and are paid overtime when they do.

However, many app providers advertise their ability to manage workers’ hours on behalf of employers.

And while app providers may set rules restricting workers to one job a day through their app, they have no way of knowing if a worker is also using an app from a rival provider.

Tsunagu Group Holdings Inc. provides a wide range of employment consulting services, which, until recently, included a gig work app.

But according to the company, a person used multiple apps to work more than 160 hours a month for the same company, exceeding 40 hours a week.

Under the Labor Standards Law, a company must enter into a labor-management agreement and pay overtime if a worker exceeds eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

An official with Tsunagu said the app company had no idea how the specific matter was handled because management of working hours is the responsibility of the employer.

Tsunagu discontinued the app service at the end of 2024 because it was felt it had reached its limits in providing accurate information and services.

One company executive said concerns were raised about the risk of violating laws because providing labor management for companies that used the app had become so complicated and difficult.

“Managing working hours in a single app no longer means anything,” the executive said.

While many app providers have set maximum weekly limits for working hours and maximum monthly pay, some workers who depend on gig work to make a living have balked at these restrictions and turned to other apps.

As new app providers enter the market it has become even more difficult to manage working hours accurately.

Masayuki Numata, a labor law professor at Tokyo’s Hosei University, is one expert who believes new laws are needed to manage gig work apps.

“If a worker uses different apps to do jobs at different sections of the same company, it will be difficult for that company to obtain an accurate grasp of that individual’s working hours,” Numata explained.

“Although the company is legally responsible, there is also a need to think about this as an issue concerning app providers,” he said.

He believes there is a need for legal provisions that allow providers to share information about what apps are being used and how many hours individuals are working.

(This article was written by Keiichi Kitagawa and Takehiko Sawaji, a senior staff writer.)

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