Labor Ministry has neglected illegal corporate practice of not directly hiring temp workers

   Due to the Labor Ministry’s failure to enforce the Worker Dispatch Law that obligates corporations to offer temporary workers direct employment after they have worked there for three years, no temporary workers have been directly hired by the application of the provision since 2003.

   The Labor Ministry revealed this fact in answer to Japanese Communist Party representative Koike Akira in the December 4 House of Councilors Labor Committee meeting.

   “There have been no cases” in which the Labor Bureau instructed companies to correct their failure to offer direct employment, and thus “no temporary workers have been directly hired” under the law, stated Employment Security Bureau Director-General Ota Toshiaki.

   Whereas companies using temporary workers are obligated to offer them direct employment after three years, the Worker Dispatch Law requires staffing agencies to inform the companies that the workers have worked for three full years. Using this provision as a pretext, the Labor Ministry has neglected to instruct those companies to redress their illegal practice of not offering the direct positions.

Stressing, “The Worker Dispatch Law is not working,” Koike urged the government to strengthen its enforcement capability as well as drastically revise the law.
- Akahata, December 5, 2007