Japan Press Weekly

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2015 September 9 - 15 [LABOR]

Bill depriving temporary workers of hope for full-time positions forcibly enacted

Amid protests being staged by unions outside the Diet building, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties on September 11 at a Lower House plenary session used their majority to pass and enact a bill to remove the three-year limit on the use of temporary workers from the current Worker Dispatch Law.

The Japanese Communist, Democratic, Social Democratic, Japan Innovation, and People’s Life parties voted against the bill.

Prior to the vote at the plenary meeting, JCP member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko referred to the fact that a new system designed to increase the opportunity of temporary agency workers to obtain regular positions was scheduled to start on October 1.

Under the system, any company which is found to use temporary workers for more than three years or found to be violating other rules would have to offer direct employment to these workers.

JCP Takahashi pointed out that the bill was forcibly enacted in order to prevent the launch of this new system. It is unforgivable for the ruling parties to take away from temporary workers their chances for direct employment which they were about to obtain, she added.

Past related article:
> Abe’s deregulation of use of temps will lead to expansion of informal economy [July 1, 2015]