Japan Press Weekly

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2009 February 11 - 17 TOP3 [LABOR]

JCP Chair Shii encourages union leaders to fight mass layoffs using existing laws

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo emphasized the importance of invoking the current laws in fighting mass layoffs without waiting for the Worker Dispatch Law to be revised.

Shii made the remark on February 10 at meetings that he had separately with representatives of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Youth Union to discuss the struggle to protect temporary workers’ jobs.

He said, “Judging from provisions of the current Worker Dispatch Law, most employers are not in compliance with the law in hiring and dismissing temporary workers. It is essential that we focus our struggle on finding the most expedient way to stop the massive job cuts of contingent workers, using the existing law.”

Shii referred to Labor Minister Masuzoe Yoichi’s response to questioning at the House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on February 4.

Regarding the maximum of three years permitted by law for the use of temporary workers, Masuzoe stated that the length of the use of temporary workers must include periods in which the workers were disguised as independent contractors.

Masuzoe also recognized that if employers re-designate temporary workers to other employment statuses within a short period, it would be in violation of the Employment Security Law and the duration of such use should be counted as a part of the three-year limitation because of employers’ abuse of the Labor Ministry directive allowing them to retain temporary workers by putting intervals between three-year periods.

Shii explained that at Panasonic Electronics Devise Wakasa Plant, which he referred to during his questioning on February 4, workers successfully forced the company to freeze its plan to dismiss temporary workers because the local labor bureau retroactively recognized the validity of the testimony by a whistleblower that the company used temporary workers disguised as independent contractors.

Shii said, “If a company was found to have used temporary workers in the past by illegally manipulating the records to make them work as long as it wants without regard for the three-year limit, it is possible to force the company to stop laying off temporary workers’. We should strive to make this public knowledge. It is important to intensify the struggle by filing requests with the Labor Bureau to end illegal labor practices affecting temporary workers.”

Zenroren President Daikoku Sakuji said, “It is important to make widely known that there are ways to stop the layoffs of temporary workers, including organized action to file complaints with the Labor Bureau calling for an end to the illegal use of temporary workers.”

All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union Chair Ikuma Shigemi said, “The Labor Ministry must be held to blame for its failure to properly carry out responsible labor administration. It is important to launch movements by informing workers that they will have their jobs protected, if the Labor Ministry plays its role in accordance with the law.”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Youth Union Secretary General Kawazoe Makoto stated, “We will develop a movement to press the Labor Bureau to take necessary steps to end illegal uses of temporary workers.”