Japan Press Weekly

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2017 June 21 - 27 [LABOR]

Half of hospital childcare workers found to be temps

It was found that about half of hospitals equipped with a childcare center available for use by their employees have been entrusting operations to an outside business entity, and that nearly half of in-hospital childcare workers work on non-regular employment contracts.

The Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) on June 26 held a press conference at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and released its survey results.

According to the survey, 47.1% of on-site nurseries have been managed by for-profit enterprises. The survey also shows that non-regular workers accounted for 47.4% of hospital childcare workers while 52.6% work on regular contracts. Out of those non-regular workers, 51.7% have less than 3-year careers. Seventy-seven percent of non-regular nursery staff say that they work more than ten hours a day. The average starting monthly wages for non-regular hospital childcare workers is 160,523 yen, over 20,000 yen less than that for regular workers.

Terazono Michie of the Iroren said that it is necessary to eliminate long working hours, improve working conditions for in-hospital nursery workers, and expand the subsidy program to ensure the safety of children at hospital daycare centers.

Furusawa Yuko, an in-hospital childcare worker in Chiba, said, “Compared to authorized childcare centers, subsidies for in-house facilities are scarce. We even have to prepare meals for children, enduring additional heavy burdens.”