JCP proposes employment policy to control corporate dismissals

The Japanese Communist Party has published a set of policy proposals entitled "Establish rules to secure jobs and protect human rights from outrageous corporate restructuring and dismissals, and continue working without fear of losing jobs."

Ichida Tadayoshi, JCP Secretariat head, held a news conference in the Diet Building on December 9 to make the following points:

The employment situation is now very serious. The Koizumi Cabinet's policy of accelerating the disposal of banks' bad loans is estimated to produce 650,000 jobless people according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and 3.32 million in a private institution's survey.

Job security is the basis of the people's stable living condition as well as the main factor in the recovery of the Japanese economy from the long recession. Based on this view, the JCP proposes three policy changes.

The first is the enactment of a law for restricting dismissals and protecting workers' human rights in order to ban dismissals without justifiable reasons and secure employment and rights of all workers, including part-time and temporary workers.

The second is to increase jobs by ending overtime work without pay, encouraging workers to take paid leaves, and restricting long working hours.

The third is the enactment of a special measures law for ensuring jobs and living for the unemployed as an urgent step until the unemployment rate goes down to the three percent level.

Ichida said that the JCP will make efforts to increase the movement both in and out of the Diet to get the proposals enacted. (end)