Temporary workers denounce Canon Inc. for its illegal use of them

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Temporary workers denounce Canon Inc. for its illegal use of them

At Canon Inc. whose chairman, Mitarai Fujio, chairs the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), 17 temporary workers on October 18 demanded that the company discontinue its illegal practice of using them as "disguised contract workers" and employ them as regular workers.

On October 17, these workers who are engaged in lens production at Canon's Utsunomiya Optical Products Plant in Tochigi Prefecture also submitted a petition to the Tochigi Labor Bureau calling on them to send the company a directive to end the illegal labor practice.

These 25- to 35-year-old workers, some of whom have been working at Canon for ten years, have joined the labor union "Tokyo Union."

Though they are employed by a staffing agency, their work is fully supervised by Canon. The Worker Dispatch Law requires the company to offer the temporary workers full-time positions after a period of one year. In order to evade the legal responsibility, Canon has disguised these workers as "contract workers."

Faced with public criticism, Canon changed these workers' status into "dispatched workers," but in about a year restored them as "contract workers."

Many Canon subsidiaries have been criticized for their illegal practice of using "disguised contract work." Last year, a local Labor Bureau instructed an Oita Prefecture-based subsidiary to eliminate this practice.

One of the 17 workers stated, "As long as we work as contingent workers, we have no future. We have been working hard with pride, and want to continue to work as full-time employees."
- Akahata, October 19, 2006