Japan Press Weekly

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2020 March 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Non-regular employment rate is too high in Health Ministry to combat infectious diseases

Japanese Communist Party Dietmember Tamura Tomoko at a House of Councilors committee meeting on March 10 said that the Health Ministry's non-regular employment rate is too high to bear the responsibility for countermeasures against infectious diseases, proposing that the government promote the conversion of the ministry's non-regular employees to full-time regular positions.

Tamura pointed out that even mission-critical tasks at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases are dealt with mainly by fixed-term researchers under contracts of one up to three years. As an emergency measure to handle anti-corona countermeasures, she said, "Public offerings of job openings limited to a maximum of 3-year contracts should be stopped."

Tamura also pointed out that as many as 20,000 employees out of the 50,000 personnel in the ministry are on limited-time contracts. She demanded that the government consider transferring experienced and qualified fixed-term employees to open-ended regular positions.

Furthermore, she noted that the percentage of women among central government workers remains at only 20% while women account for nearly 80% of fixed-term central government workers. She said, "To have the experienced and qualified fixed-term workers designated as full-time government workers will help to address the gender inequality."