Japan Press Weekly

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2016 November 9 - 15 [LABOR]

70% of non-regular contracted school librarians earn less than 2 million yen a year: teachers’ union

More than 70% of non-regular contracted librarians in public elementary and junior high schools live on less than two million yen in annual income. This was revealed in survey results that the All Japan Teachers and Staffs Union (Zenkyo) published on November 7.

In the survey, about 70% of the respondents answered that they are working for an hourly wage of less than 1,000 yen and 50% said that they receive no transportation allowance. One out of every six respondents works two jobs. On the other hand, some said that like other regular public workers, they are prohibited from taking an extra job.

In the same survey, one out of every five non-regular contracted school librarians works at more than one school. Regarding a question about the number of working days, about 65% said, “Five days a week”, while about 30% said, “One day.”

Answers to a free response question included: “I want to receive overtime payments and be entitled to take paid summer and winter holidays”; and “I work five days a week at five different schools. I really feel anxiety because I have to renew my contract every year.”

Zenkyo is calling on the central and local governments to provide an hourly wage of 1,000 yen to temporary workers at public school libraries and deploy regular workers with specialized knowledge to school libraries.

Zenkyo executive Hatakeyama Kazunori, who is in charge of the issue of school librarians’ working conditions, said, “Zenkyo will work hard to improve working conditions of temporary school librarians.”