Japan Press Weekly

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2022 March 23 - 29 TOP3 [LABOR]

Layoffs of 600 RIKEN researchers may engender 60 leading innovative studies

The labor union at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) on March 25 demanded that the Ministry of Science and Technology instruct the RIKEN institute to withdraw the planned layoffs of 600 part-time researchers in March 2023.

The RIKEN union held a press conference in the ministry building on the same day and claimed that RIKEN will terminate 600 part-time employment contracts for the purpose of evading its legal obligation to offer them open-ended contracts. The union expressed concern that their dismissals may result in the dissolution of 60 research teams at RIKEN working on cutting-edge advanced technologies.

Union Chair Kanai Yasuyuki said that the use of part-time researchers is spreading even to team leaders. He pointed out that about 600 researchers, one-eighth of the RIKEN payroll, will lose their jobs and that the termination of their contracts may lead to the dissolution of 60 research teams.

The chief of one research team said, "It took more than a decade for us to make one of the world's most advanced research environments. It was just recently that we began to produce results, and our team succeeded in winning government research grants for the next three years. However, the team will have to be disbanded if part-time researchers' contracts are not renewed."

Past related article:
> RIKEN union blocks institute’s mass dismissals of non-regular workers [January, 9, 2019]