Shii calls for strict regulation on major firms’ disposable use of workers and subcontractors

Japan Press Weekly

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

Shii calls for strict regulation on major firms’ disposable use of workers and subcontractors

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo called for an end to major corporations’ disposable use of workers and bullying of medium- and small-sized companies at the February 8 House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting.

He stressed that the growth potential of the Japanese economy has weakened because major corporations’ enormous profits have been internally reserved and not been returned to workers.

In order to break through the situation, he demanded that the government take measures to provide non-regular workers regular positions as well as to ensure fair dealings between large corporations and smaller firms.

Concerning a bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law, Shii pointed out two loopholes in the government’s draft bill.

The first one is that while calling for a ban on sending temporary workers to manufacturers, the government wants to exclude temporary workers who are permanently hired by a staffing agency from the regulation.

According to Shii, the Labor Ministry has found that 76.7 percent of permanent staffing agency workers were dismissed when a workshop where they were sent to terminated a contract with their employer (the staffing agency). In order to improve their unstable working conditions, the government should ban manufacturers from using all types of temporary workers, he urged.

The other loophole is that although the government’s draft bill includes a ban on use of on-call temporary workers, companies might be allowed to use them to work in “26 special job categories”.

Shii revealed that nearly half of one million temporary employees engaged in the “26 special job categories” are clerical workers using computers. Insisting that such jobs should not be recognized as a “special job,” Shii called on the government to narrow down the list.

Concerning the widening gap of wages between workers hired by major corporations and by smaller companies, Shii raised major corporations’ cuts in unit prices for subcontractors as one of the causes.

In the last five and half years, the Fair Trade Commission has reprimanded only one firm for excessively lowering unit prices. Shii called for a more comprehensive inspection system.

- Akahata, February 9, 2010