2008 July 23 - 29 TOP3 [
LABOR]
Labor ministry must work to drastically revise worker dispatch law
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July 29, 2008
A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry study panel has compiled a report calling for a stricter regulation of the use of temporary workers, including a prohibition in principle of the use of “day laborers” and issuing advice to companies that use temporary workers.
Akahata editorial (excerpts)
A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry study panel has compiled a report calling for a stricter regulation of the use of temporary workers, including a prohibition in principle of the use of “day laborers” and issuing advice to companies that use temporary workers.
The system of dispatching workers has been under criticism as a system that forces workers to work at low wages without job security and that contributes to the expansion of the working poor.
Thanks to the struggles by workers and other sections of the people, as well as the Japanese Communist Party’s effort in the Diet, the prevalence of calls for “deregulation” as a cure-all is being reversed.
Temporary workers are being used to do dangerous work despite a ban by law and staffing agencies are taking a substantial cut from temporary workers’ wages. Many of the extremely low-paid temporary workers cannot afford to rent an apartment. An increasing number of such temporary workers wait for a call from the staffing agency at an internet cafés. Their living conditions are terrible.
This is why the latest Labor Ministry’s White Paper on Labor has, at long last, acknowledged the adverse effects of the sharp growth of the number of contingent workers. It stated that, coupled with the introduction of the performance-based pay system, this has deprived workers of dignity at work and weakened their will to work.
In Japan after the end of WWII, the use of temporary workers, which only helped to supply unstable jobs at low wages to meet corporate needs, was banned in principle. However, in 1999 when the ban was lifted in principle, the number of dispatch workers began to increase sharply. Since manufacturers introduced the system in 2004, millions of full-time workers have been replaced by contingent workers, making it easier for employers to dismiss workers.
Recent favorable changes concerning the worker dispatch system have been taking place thanks to the struggle of workers and public calling for a review of the system, which at present allows employers to replace full-time workers with contingent workers. Similar calls have been arising from among the ruling parties as well as partly from major corporations.
We must be aware, however, that the matter will help to replace full-time workers with fixed-term workers. This is why the Worker Dispatch Law must be drastically revised.
The Japanese Communist Party has proposed that the Worker Dispatch Law needs to be revised so that it provides in principle that the use of temporary workers must be limited to temporary jobs. It has insisted that the use of temporary workers must not be a substitute for employment of full-time workers.
The JCP has also proposed that the past ban on labor dispatch, which was lifted in principle in 1999, be restored. It has said that the use of temporary workers who have signed up for temporary jobs must be limited to exceptional circumstances. It has also called for a ban on day laboring. - Akahata, July 29, 2008
