Japan Press Weekly

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2013 April 10 - 16 [LABOR]

Part-time lecturers condemn university for unilaterally changing work rules in violation of labor laws

A union of university part-time lecturers in the Tokyo metropolitan area on April 12 urged the labor and education ministries to investigate Waseda University for unilaterally changing its rules of employment in violation of the Labor Standards Act.

According to the union, the university management amended the rules to set a five-year term limit on contracts with part-time faculty members in order to evade the legal responsibility under the revised Labor Contract Act, enforced on April 1.

The Labor Standards Act requires that in changing work regulations, an employer shall ask the opinion of either a labor union which has organized the majority of workers at the workplace or a person representing the majority of workers.

There is no union for part-time teaching staff at Waseda University. The university authority claimed that it held a vote on February 14 to elect a person representing the majority of non-regular lecturers. No lecturers, however, came to work on that day, when the university’s entrance examination was being carried out. The university authority has failed to make public the vote result and the name of the elected person.

The union on April 8 filed a criminal complaint against Waseda for violation of the Labor Standards Act.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Tamura Tomoko joined in the handover of the union’s petition to the ministries.

Related past article:
> Part-time teachers at universities fight back against 5-year contract limit [March 29,2013]