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2013 July 31 - August 13 [LABOR]

Labor ministry will inspect 4,000 ‘black corporations’

August 9, 2013
The Labor Ministry on August 8 announced that it will conduct intensive inspections of working conditions of companies which are suspected to be “black corporations” using young workers in an highly exploitative manner.

This is the labor ministry’s first action focusing on black corporation issues. The ministry made a move as the Japanese Communist Party has been repeatedly taking up the issue in the Diet and calling on the government to implement measures to address the abusive use of workers by black companies.

According to the labor ministry, labor enforcement officers in September will inspect around 100 companies with high personnel turnover rates and 4,000 companies allegedly violating labor laws and imposing excessively long working hours on their workers in order to determine if these companies actually force their employees to work beyond the limit set by labor regulations or work overtime without pay. If a gross violation is discovered, the ministry will make company names public.

The ministry also plans to instruct companies whose employees had died from overwork to take preventive measures, and conduct a campaign to increase employers’ awareness of the need to eliminate power harassment in workplaces.

JCP Acting Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki, a member of the Upper House and head of the JCP task force for elimination of “black corporations”, commenting on the labor ministry’s announcement said, “It is about time that the labor authority should decide to carry out investigation into black corporations. The measure should have been taken much earlier.”

He pointed out that in order to eradicate black corporations’ abusive labor practices, the government should change its labor policy which increases non-regular employment in order to stop corporations from easily discharging workers. “The JCP will oppose any further relaxation of labor regulations and do its utmost to eliminate black corporations,” Yamashita said.
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