 Business circles call for easing law on 'discretionary' and contingent work The government has approved a revision to the three-year plan for deregulation (2004-06) that calls for specific measures concerning the way people work. What business circles want most is the increased use of the "discretionary" work system. Under the "discretionary system," workers are paid only for the number of hours agreed upon between management and labor, regardless of actual hours of work. As this system regards non-payment for overtime work as legal, it is subject to limited categories of jobs and strict procedures for its introduction. The government plan calls for these restrictions to be eased and be entrusted to the "autonomous" operation by management and labor. Given that less than 20 percent of workers are organized and that trade unions at large corporations are corporate-friendly, "autonomy" will end up in name only. The proposed deregulation in these circumstances will result in giving more freedom to corporations. However, business circles want more. They call for white-collar workers in clerical and engineering jobs to be exempted from work hour controls, following in U.S. footsteps. If this deregulation is enacted, most workers who work overtime will not be paid for the overtime hours they worked as corporations are exempted from the responsibility to regulate working hours. This will result in more unpaid working hours than the ones at present. Even now, one out of every six workers works more than 3,000 hours a year, and more than 150 cases a year are recognized as karoshi (death from overwork). The other step in response to business leaders' calls is an increased use of staffing services. Postwar labor law has strictly forbidden the staffing service by which corporations are supplied with the staff the provider hires, instead of directly employing workers. Workers in this indirect employment relation used to suffer a great disadvantage. The recent Staff Servicing Law legally admits this relationship as an exception in limited temporary occasions. The government plan is aimed at making the use of temporary workers more convenient for corporations by lifting pre-employment interviews of job seekers by employers of leased labor as well as other deregulations. The proposed measures will only help make the unstable employment longer and more widespread. It will further increase the complaints that contracts are unilaterally ended by employers. (From Akahata March 29 issue) (end) |