Japan Press Weekly

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2007 June 27 - July 3 [LABOR]

Labor Bureau-run employment seminars give guidance in violation of workers’ rights

Employment seminars, run by labor bureaus subcontracted to private corporations, have used textbooks that state, “Job seekers should not ask about wages, overtime and holidays in job interviews.”

In response to Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Yoshikawa Haruko’s inquiry, the Labor Ministry Employment Security Bureau answered that the textbooks produced by Tokyo Legal Mind, a major business school, have been used in job hunting advice seminars in 16 prefectures.

This problem came to light when a young JCP member attended the seminar in Shimane Prefecture. At a Shiname Prefectural Assembly meeting on June 19, JCP representative Omura Toshinari brought it up, and Governor Mizoguchi Zenbe said that such a textbook is “irrelevant.”

The Employment Security Bureau on June 20 instructed prefectural labor bureaus to delete the textbooks’ statement, saying, “This would cause the misunderstanding that job seekers must not ask questions regarding working conditions, which is detrimental to them.”

Yoshikawa criticized the Labor Ministry and prefectural labor bureaus which are supposed to protect labor rights for allowing such seminars to be held that infringe on workers’ rights.

Yoshikawa pointed out that the root cause of this problem is the government policy of “from public to private sectors” fully entrusting private firms with the public services which the state should assume responsibility for.

The Labor Ministry has a plan to outsource job placement services to the private sector. Yoshikawa urged the ministry to withdraw the plan immediately, inspect all services it has outsourced, and take necessary measures to prevent similar problems from occurring. - Akahata, June 27, 2007