JCP Koike urges labor minister to instruct Isuzu Motors to stop dirty tactics in using temps

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JCP Koike urges labor minister to instruct Isuzu Motors to stop dirty tactics in using temps

At a House of Councilors Labor Committee meeting on February 15, Japanese Communist Party representative Koike Akira urged Labor Minister Yanagisawa Hakuo to instruct Isuzu Motors to stop its dirty tactics of evading responsibilities imposed under the Worker Dispatch Law.

The law requires employers to directly hire temporary workers (dispatched workers) after using them for a period of one year.

Amid the growing public criticism against the illegal corporate practice of disguised contract labor, Isuzu last November changed the status of 1,500 eligible temporary workers into that of directly-hired workers.

The company, however, entered into contracts that were valid for only three months. The company later notified them that the contracts would be extended for one more month, and then notified then again that they would be extended for two more months. These workers are still suffering from anxieties, since their contracts will expire in April.

Revealing this, Koike criticized the short-term repeated contracts scheme for running counter to the workers' wishes for stable long-term employment.

While admitting the legal obligation on companies to offer temporary workers long-term contracts, Yanagisawa refused to give guidance to the company by saying, "The ministry is not in a position to interfere in individual contracts."

Koike in reply said, "With short-term repeated contracts, these workers can not get out of the unstable employment situation. Giving companies guidance regarding compliance with a law is the role the ministry must fulfill."
- Akahata, February 16, 2007