February 5, 2009
Questioning the government at the House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said, “Large corporations put the interests of large shareholders, seeking easy profits, before the interests of workers who labor diligently. Isn’t this corruption even by capitalist standards? Won’t this also deprive corporations of their own future viability?”
“The government must act now to stop large corporations from further destroying the job market.”
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo used his question-time at the House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on February 4 to criticize major Japanese corporations for rushing to implement mass job cuts of temporary and fixed-term contract workers doing the same work as full-time workers. He demanded that corporations give these temporary workers full-time positions.
After exposing some concrete details as to how temporary workers are being treated by major corporations, Shii demanded that the committee summon representatives of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) as well as CEOs of major corporations to testify as unsworn witnesses.
Eto Seishiro, the committee chair, said he would have the proposal considered at the committee’s board meeting.
A sharp increase in internal reserves
Shii pointed out that the government policy is to blame for the ongoing mass layoffs of temporary workers and that the government must accept responsibility for the “politically engineered disaster.”
The sharp increase in the number of temporary workers is not a natural event. It was triggered by the government and ruling parties when they, in response to business circles’ demand, in principle removed restrictions on the use of temporary workers in 1999 and extended the deregulation in 2004 to allow the manufacturing industry to hire temporary workers.
JCP Chair Shii Kazuo: If the government is to address the issue in earnest, it should accept its share of responsibility.
Prime Minister Aso Taro: The revised Worker Dispatch Law has been instrumental in creating jobs in response to the needs for diverse ways of work.
Criticizing the prime minister for refusing to admit that the government is responsible for the disastrous consequences, Shii said: “In stark contrast with what you have just stated, the revision of the Worker Dispatch Law led to the creation of the ‘working poor.’ Clearly, this law was enacted to meet corporate needs, not the needs of workers.”
The number of workers dismissed recently by large corporations is rising. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates that about 125,000 temporary workers will have been laid off between October 2008 and March 2009. The business sector estimates that as many as 400,000 temporary workers and independent contractors in the manufacturing industry will lose their jobs by the end of March.
Shii stated, “The government is called upon to use every possible means to assist laid off workers in securing places to live as well as employment. The government should take, without delay, steps to stop corporate dismissals of contingent workers.”
Then he asked the prime minister if he sees corporations’ mass dismissals as ‘indispensable’.
He said, “Up till recently, most major Japanese corporations posted record profits for several years. Where has the money in surplus gone?”
Using a chart, Shii showed how major manufacturers have amassed their internal reserves by increasing the numbers of temporary workers in their workforce.
The chart shows that between 1997-2007, the internal reserves of large manufacturers increased by about 32 trillion yen to 120 trillion. The number of contingent workers who replaced full-time workers rose by 5.8 million to 17.32 million in the same period.
Shii emphasized that a tiny fraction of the huge amounts of internal reserves would be enough to maintain 400, 000 jobs for temporary workers.
“Major Japanese corporations have enough power to maintain the present-level of employment.”
Shii: This shows that large corporations still are financially capable of maintaining jobs. They should be allowed to carry out mass layoffs only when they are on the verge of collapse after making every effort to prevent bankruptcy.
Aso: There are companies that are cutting jobs in haste. They ought to do more to prevent such job cuts.
Degradation of capitalism that gives shareholders preference over workers
“Most large corporations are dismissing workers while they increase dividends to shareholders even under an economic downturn.
To illustrate this situation, Shii showed a chart in which large corporations increased their operating profits by 8.2 trillion yen and increased dividends to shareholders by 4 trillion yen in the last ten years, while they reduced the payment of wages to their employees by 2.3 trillion yen.
Shii said, “Large corporations put the interests of large shareholders, seeking easy profits, before the interests of workers who labor diligently. Isn’t this corruption even by capitalist standards? Won’t this also deprive corporations of their own future viability?”
Shii: The government should summon representatives of economic organizations and large corporations who give top priority to the payments of dividends to shareholders at the neglect of their responsibilities to employees and their families and to local communities, and demand that they stop the massive dismissal of workers.
P.M.: It would be inappropriate for me to preach to corporate representatives how individual companies should behave.
Shii refuted that his request is for the prime minister to directly instruct the business world to end the massive dismissals. He further demanded that the Worker Dispatch Law be drastically revised to be restored to the original law before it was changed and that the dispatch of workers based on registration be banned in principle.
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo used his question-time at the House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on February 4 to criticize major Japanese corporations for rushing to implement mass job cuts of temporary and fixed-term contract workers doing the same work as full-time workers. He demanded that corporations give these temporary workers full-time positions.
After exposing some concrete details as to how temporary workers are being treated by major corporations, Shii demanded that the committee summon representatives of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) as well as CEOs of major corporations to testify as unsworn witnesses.
Eto Seishiro, the committee chair, said he would have the proposal considered at the committee’s board meeting.
A sharp increase in internal reserves
Shii pointed out that the government policy is to blame for the ongoing mass layoffs of temporary workers and that the government must accept responsibility for the “politically engineered disaster.”
The sharp increase in the number of temporary workers is not a natural event. It was triggered by the government and ruling parties when they, in response to business circles’ demand, in principle removed restrictions on the use of temporary workers in 1999 and extended the deregulation in 2004 to allow the manufacturing industry to hire temporary workers.
JCP Chair Shii Kazuo: If the government is to address the issue in earnest, it should accept its share of responsibility.
Prime Minister Aso Taro: The revised Worker Dispatch Law has been instrumental in creating jobs in response to the needs for diverse ways of work.
Criticizing the prime minister for refusing to admit that the government is responsible for the disastrous consequences, Shii said: “In stark contrast with what you have just stated, the revision of the Worker Dispatch Law led to the creation of the ‘working poor.’ Clearly, this law was enacted to meet corporate needs, not the needs of workers.”
The number of workers dismissed recently by large corporations is rising. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates that about 125,000 temporary workers will have been laid off between October 2008 and March 2009. The business sector estimates that as many as 400,000 temporary workers and independent contractors in the manufacturing industry will lose their jobs by the end of March.
Shii stated, “The government is called upon to use every possible means to assist laid off workers in securing places to live as well as employment. The government should take, without delay, steps to stop corporate dismissals of contingent workers.”
Then he asked the prime minister if he sees corporations’ mass dismissals as ‘indispensable’.
He said, “Up till recently, most major Japanese corporations posted record profits for several years. Where has the money in surplus gone?”
Using a chart, Shii showed how major manufacturers have amassed their internal reserves by increasing the numbers of temporary workers in their workforce.
The chart shows that between 1997-2007, the internal reserves of large manufacturers increased by about 32 trillion yen to 120 trillion. The number of contingent workers who replaced full-time workers rose by 5.8 million to 17.32 million in the same period.
Shii emphasized that a tiny fraction of the huge amounts of internal reserves would be enough to maintain 400, 000 jobs for temporary workers.
“Major Japanese corporations have enough power to maintain the present-level of employment.”
Shii: This shows that large corporations still are financially capable of maintaining jobs. They should be allowed to carry out mass layoffs only when they are on the verge of collapse after making every effort to prevent bankruptcy.
Aso: There are companies that are cutting jobs in haste. They ought to do more to prevent such job cuts.
Degradation of capitalism that gives shareholders preference over workers
“Most large corporations are dismissing workers while they increase dividends to shareholders even under an economic downturn.
To illustrate this situation, Shii showed a chart in which large corporations increased their operating profits by 8.2 trillion yen and increased dividends to shareholders by 4 trillion yen in the last ten years, while they reduced the payment of wages to their employees by 2.3 trillion yen.
Shii said, “Large corporations put the interests of large shareholders, seeking easy profits, before the interests of workers who labor diligently. Isn’t this corruption even by capitalist standards? Won’t this also deprive corporations of their own future viability?”
Shii: The government should summon representatives of economic organizations and large corporations who give top priority to the payments of dividends to shareholders at the neglect of their responsibilities to employees and their families and to local communities, and demand that they stop the massive dismissal of workers.
P.M.: It would be inappropriate for me to preach to corporate representatives how individual companies should behave.
Shii refuted that his request is for the prime minister to directly instruct the business world to end the massive dismissals. He further demanded that the Worker Dispatch Law be drastically revised to be restored to the original law before it was changed and that the dispatch of workers based on registration be banned in principle.
