Large corporations falsely claim they corrected illegal practice of 'disguised contract work'

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Large corporations falsely claim they corrected illegal practice of 'disguised contract work'

At a House of Councilors Labor Committee meeting on December 12, Japanese Communist Party representative Koike Akira revealed that some major manufacturers offer their temporary workers only short-term employment positions such as for a three-month period under the name of "direct employment."

These corporations are attempting to exploit loopholes in the labor law to claim they corrected their illegal practice of "disguised contract work" by offering "direct employment."

Increasing number of large manufacturers have been practicing "disguised contract work" in order to avoid their responsibility, imposed by the Worker Dispatch Law, to offer a direct employment position to dispatched workers after employing them for over a year. Companies are instructed by the labor bureau to comply with the law when their illegal labor practice is discovered.

According to Koike, Matsushita Plasma Display Panel Co. (Ibaraki City in Osaka Prefecture) that announced its plan to change the status of dispatched workers into direct employees has offered only a fixed-term employment with a period of employment ranging from three months to two years and three months. Its contract clearly states that the period of employment will not exceed two years and three months from the day the worker enters the company.

In October, Isuzu Motors directly hired about 1,500 outsourced workers at its factories in Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture and in Tochigi Prefecture. These workers, however, are worried if they will soon be sent back to staffing companies because their period of employment will end in three months.

In fact, these "Isuzu workers" are still living in dormitories arranged by their former staffing agencies, are taken to factories everyday by buses arranged by the agencies, and are checked by the staff of the agencies. In the Tochigi factory, these workers are not given even a copy of their employment contract.

Pointing out that the Worker Dispatch Law assumes that dispatched work should not be an alternative to regular work, Koike said, "The policy Matsushita and Isuzu have devised goes against this principle." He requested the government to instruct corporations to apply this principle.

On the next day, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren)-affiliated All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) petitioned the Labor Ministry to strengthen its directives to corporations so that they will employ ex-temporary workers without resorting to fixed-term contracts.
- Akahata, December 13 & 14, 2006