More regular workers will be replaced by temps if law is adversely revised

Apprehension is increasing that corporations will rapidly increase the numbers of temporary workers while cutting the number of regular jobs if the bill to adversely revise the Temporary Staffing Law is enacted.

Such apprehension is well grounded. In a Tokyo Metropolitan Government survey on temporary staffing taken this spring, 73 percent of surveyed corporations answered that they are using more temporary workers and less regular employees.

In the House of Representatives Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee, Japanese Communist Party representative Yamaguchi Tomio asked about the present situation and if the regulations in the Temporary Staffing Law require relaxation. It was revealed that no such study has been made.

Yamaguchi stated that the labor administration should above all strive to increase regular jobs, and made HL&W Minister Sakaguchi Chikara promise to report on the present situation.

Tsunamoto Mamoru, who gave his opinion as an expert on labor law, said that the bill needs clauses that guarantee regular employees will not be replaced by temporary workers. Guarantee of equal treatment and jobs where temps are staffed, establishment of joint responsibility by the staffing company and recipient firms, and the guarantee of rights to unionize will be required.

The other witness Tatsui Yoji, labor bureau director of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), said, "The bill is in complete disregard of workers' needs. It is concerned only with meeting the needs of corporations and staffing businesses. Many people have to work as temps because they can't find regular jobs. If this type of work becomes the norm in Japan's employment situation, the stability of the employment system will be undermined."(end)