May 28, 2022

The Federation of National Public Service Employees' Unions (Kokko-roren) on May 27 visited Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Tamura Tomoko in the Diet building to ask for her cooperation in order to promote regular positions and better treatment to non-regular workers in government ministries.

According to Kokko-roren, currently 86,000 non-regular workers are working in the government sector on one-year contracts while doing the same jobs as regular government workers. They, however, are excluded from the application of labor laws. In addition, under the current system, these fixed-term contract workers will be forced to sit for an employment test after they complete the predetermined number of years in service.

In the meeting with the union, Tamura expressed her determination to work hard to push the government to revise the current system regarding the use of these non-regular workers.

On this day, Kokko-roren held a day-of action, including the meeting with the JCP lawmaker, to address problems non-regular workers in the government sector are facing, such as job insecurity and unequal treatment.

Earlier on the day at collective bargaining negotiations with the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs, Kokko-roren submitted a written demand addressed to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. In the document, the union demanded that like non-regular workers in the private sector, those in government organizations be covered by a rule established under the Labor Contract Act which grants fixed-term contract workers with more than five years of service the right to claim open-ended employment contracts. The union also demanded government measures to guarantee non-regular workers stable employment, establish a legal framework for equal treatment of non-regular workers, and convert non-regular workers doing constant, professional, and continuing jobs into regular positions.