Ichida demands government efforts to correct 'working poor' conditions

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Ichida demands government efforts to correct 'working poor' conditions

In a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting on October 13, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi brought up the issue of temporary workers' harsh working conditions, and demanded that the government strengthen its instruction to companies to fulfill their legal responsibility to offer them full-time positions.

Ichida pointed out that under the corporate practice of using contingent workers, an increasing number of workers at factories of large-corporations in the auto and electronics industries are forced to endure outrageous working conditions that have greatly contributed to Japan's widening social gap.

Ichida said, "Staffing agencies and their corporate clients are preying on workers in order to make more profits. They feel no shame in using human beings simply as disposable parts."

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo stated, "It will be a serious problem if corporations have established their way of production by taking the 'working poor' for granted."

The Worker Dispatch Law imposes on employers an obligation to offer temporary workers fulltime positions after employing them for a certain period of time. Ichida said, "By putting the current law into practice, workers under the 'working poor' situation can improve their living conditions. The government should strictly instruct manufacturers to comply with the law and offer their temporary workers regular positions."

Ichida also raised the issue of "disguised contract work," an illegal corporate practice aimed at avoiding their responsibilities imposed by the Worker Dispatch Law. He referred to major subcontractor Collaborate Co., which was ordered by the Osaka Labor Bureau to suspend its business operations on October 3 because it dispatched its workers to manufacturers' plants under the illegal practice.

Ichida showed a list of manufacturers that are using workers staffed by major staffing agency Crystal Group, Collaborate's parent company. The list he managed to obtain includes Matsushita Electric Industrial, Cannon, Sony, and Toshiba as well as many other well-known corporations.

Ichida criticized the government for bringing about the "disguised contract work" problem by the adverse revision of the Worker Dispatch Law in 2003 that lifted a ban on use of dispatched workers at manufacturers' plants. Since March 2004, the number of staffing agencies dispatching workers to manufacturers' plants increased 13 times by March this year.

Ichida said, "By lifting the ban on using temporary workers in the manufacturing industry, 'disguised contract work' cases have become rampant. The government's mistake is clear and should be corrected and the government must change its policy of deregulating labor relations."
- Akahata, October 14, 2006