| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
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| Research Abstract |
(1) Significance of the Present Research
The way in which the concept of "employee" was defined came from the matter of establishing the limits on the applicability of labor and social security laws, a fact whose significance bears great importance. In order to investigate this issue in Japan, I will refer to how so-called camouflage independent businesspersons (which involves people who in actual fact operate almost as employees but in form sign contracts with company owners as independent businesspersons) have been handled in Germany. This is because theoretical investigations on the topic are well advanced in that country in the wake of revisions undertaken in 1998 and 1999 to Germany's Sozialgesetzbuch, or Social Security Code.
(2) Research Result
Receiving a scientific research grant, I undertook studies of this problem for two years. I reached the following general findings through my studies of German literature on the topic and two investigative trips to Germany.
There has been act
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ive debate in Germany surrounding the definition of "employee" since the start of the 20th century ; the goal of this debate has been to establish the limits on the applicability of labor and social security laws.
The current definition of "employee" there is based on an interpretation established during the Weimar Republic whose influence has remained strong to the present day ; this definition -- the so-called human dependency definition --takes as its core the idea that an employee is a person who produces labor depending on the directions and orders of another party (the employer), and this has established the boundaries. However, if "employee" is defined more strictly from this viewpoint with economic circumstances in mind, then people who are otherwise no different from ordinary employees are removed from the protection of labor and social security laws simply because the degree to which they are dependent on directives from an employer is low.
As a consequence, Germany established the concept of "people similar to employees." The problems produced by stricter definitions of "employee" have been eased by having certain sections of the labor codes apply to individuals so defined. However, the large numbers of camouflage independent businesspersons arising since 1980 in particular has made it clear that there are inadequacies to the aforementioned policy. For that reason, the Social Security Code in 1998 and 1999 included into the social security system those people whose status was almost that of "employee" from among the camouflage independent businesspersons by means of establishing provisions to approximately determine "a person who is employed" that is the object of the social security system. These are unique provisions such that those people who meet at least three of five standards that were set for such a category are assumed to be "a person who is employed."
The revision to the law was related only to the limits on the applicability of the social insurance system. The interpretations of many advocates are in agreement that the direct impact of this revision does not extend to the idea of an "employee" under the law. However, the concepts of both "an employee" under labor law and "a person who is employed" under social security law developed in close relationship to one another, one can expect that indirectly the effect of the new provisions under social security law will extend to the concept of "employee" under labor law. Regarding the provision's method of assuming "a person who is employed" to be someone who satisfies at least three of its five standards, it does seem to have been something arrived at rather quickly as a way to to establish the limits of the laws' applicability. However, the relationship between employment and actual work is extremely complex ; in today's world, where it is quite difficult to determine with absolute precision the range of persons who may be considered an "employee," this idea can serve as a point of reference on methods for establishing the limits of "employee" under labor law. Less
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