April 18, 2008

Lawmakers from five ruling and opposition parties on April 17 took part in a rally held in the Diet to call for a drastic revision of the Worker Dispatch Law.

Dietmembers of the Japanese Communist, Democratic, Social Democratic, People’s New, and Komei parties explained their respective proposals for revising the law and agreed on the need to ban the use of temporary workers for day labor.

JCP House of Councilors member Koike Akira stressed that the JCP is proposing revising the Worker Dispatch Law into a law to protect temporary workers.

The JCP’s proposal also states that the use of temporary workers must be restricted to temporary needs and that truly temporary workers must be regularly employed by staffing agencies.

Koike said, “The liberalization of the use of temporary workers in 1999 created the use of temporary workers for day labor,” stressing that the most effective way to prohibit employers from using temporary workers for day labor is to return to the system that existed before 1999.

He also said that employers should be required to offer temporary workers direct employment in case of illegal labor practices.
- Akahata, April 18, 2008