Japan Press Weekly

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2008 November 26 - December 2 [LABOR]

30,000 contingent workers are set to be unemployed

The Labor Ministry on November 28 published a survey that shows about 30,000 contingent workers are set to lose their jobs by the end of March.

The ministry conducted the survey through the labor bureaus in each prefecture. It asked companies how many contingent workers they plan to dismiss between October and March.

The survey found that 30,067 contingent workers have been sacked before completing their term under the present contract or have been denied renewal of their contracts after their present contracts expire.

These contingent workers include 19,775 temporary workers, 5,787 fixed-term contract workers, and 3,191 independent contractors. Seventy percent of these temporary workers have been dismissed during their contract term. This shows that illegal practices of companies’ arrogant layoffs are prevalent.

By industry, 28,245 contingent jobs have been eliminated in the manufacturing industry, accounting for 93.3% of the whole industry.

By prefecture, Aichi Prefecture tops the list with 4,400 contingent workers being sacked.

Obviously, the survey is not adequate as it claims that in Tokyo there are only three temporary workers that have the renewal of their contracts refused and that there is not such case in Osaka.

While Toyota Motor Corp. plans to shed 3,000 fixed-term contract jobs between October and March, the survey only refers to the Toyota plan to shed 1,500 temporary jobs at its major manufacturing bases.

The Japanese Communist Party has demanded that the government survey the actual state of employment and insisted that the government should take responsibility to “instruct companies to make efforts to secure employment (Article 1 of the Employment Promotion Law).”

The JCP has also urged the government to give strict administrative guidance or directive to the business circles and individual companies to stop dismissing temporary workers and fixed-term contract workers.