Japan Press Weekly

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2017 October 11 - 17 [LABOR]

Tokyo University to provide direct employment to 3,000 part-time lecturers

The University of Tokyo recently replied to unions that it will stop using 3,000 part-time lecturers as independent contractors and instead provide them with direct employment, Akahata learned on October 16.

In this regard, Japanese Communist Party lawmakers, including JCP Upper House member Kira Yoshiko, had conducted hearings with the University of Tokyo Faculty and Staff Union and the Union of University Part-Time Lecturers in the Tokyo Area. Based on the hearings, the JCP parliamentarians urged the Education and Labor ministries to issue a directive to Tokyo University.

Contingent teaching staff at the university have experienced great inconvenience due to their independent contractor position. They are ineligible for workers’ compensation insurance coverage, and as they work under the pay-as-you-go system, they are unable to state of their CVs that they teach at the University of Tokyo.

The two unions had jointly negotiated with the university administration and demanded that part-time lecturers be hired as direct employees.

In a collective bargaining session on October 10, the university offered its response to the unions’ demand which states that the university will establish work rules regarding wages and other working conditions in preparation for placing part-time lecturers under direct employment.