May 31, 2024

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Miyamoto Toru on May 29 at a House of Representatives Labor Committee meeting demanded that the government ratify the ILO convention on the elimination of violence and harassment at work and establish a legal framework for a comprehensive ban on workplace harassment.

Miyamoto pointed out that the 2019 revised act concerning workplace harassment obliges employers to take preventive measures such as the setting up of a consultation desk in companies. The JCP lawmaker criticized the law for being ineffective on the grounds that under the law, prefectural labor offices of the Labor Ministry only give advice or guidance to companies regarding the establishment of a consultation desk.

Miyamoto said that the current law fails to provide relief to victims of workplace harassment and in some cases creates a disadvantageous situation for the victims. As an example, he talked about workers who developed depression after experiencing power harassment. According to Miyamoto, although these workers asked their companies’ consultation desk for help to end power harassment, they received no relief and instead were forced to admit that they were at fault.

Miyamoto stressed that if a law banning all types of harassment is created, it will have more of a deterrent effect and become a tool for relevant authorities to instruct companies to eliminate workplace harassment and provide relief to victims. He said, “In order to make the existing law enforceable and thus effective, the government should ratify the ILO convention and introduce measures to impose a blanket ban on workplace harassment.

Past related article:
> Gov't draft guidelines to end power harassment will have opposite effect [November 19, 2019]