Construction workers urgently rally against adverse labor law change

About 200 people attended an urgent rally held by the National Federation of Construction Workers' Unions on June 10 in the Diet building against the adverse change of labor laws.

Federation Chair Kato Tadayoshi in his speech on behalf of the sponsor said he is afraid that the adversely revised Temporary Staffing Law may be applied to the construction industry. He called for a movement to be developed to reject such moves. He added that it is necessary to prevent possible adverse effects of the adversely-revised Labor Standards Law showing up in the construction industry, although employers' "freedom of dismissal" clause was dropped from the law.

The rally adopted a resolution in opposition to the application of the Temporary Staffing Law to the manufacturing industry as an alarm to the construction industry as the next target. It stated that the system for the construction industry to use contingent workers on lease contracts will cause the nightmarish situation of the past to reappear. Construction workers in the past were forced to do harsh labor without basic rights for workers.

The resolution pledges to make efforts to reject debased working conditions any further while jobs are cut due to the prolonged economic recession. (end)