Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 31 - August 13 [POLITICS]

LDP’s victory in Upper House election encourages Keidanren to demand revision of Worker Dispatch Law

Taking advantage of the latest Upper House election results which gave the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties majority control of the house, the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and the staffing service industry accelerated their moves calling for another adverse revision of the Worker Dispatch Law.

On July 26, five days after the election, a delegation of the Japan Production Skill Association and the Japan Staffing Services Association, both composed of staffing companies, met with Labor Minister Tamura Norihisa to demand that the provision which basically bans the use of temp workers as “day laborers” be erased from the law and that the ministry abolish its system of imposing “instructions” to staffing agencies on their illegal labor practices.

The prohibition on the use of agency workers as day laborers was adopted in October 2012 under the Democratic Party of Japan-led government.

It is unusual for a state minister to receive a petition directly from groups of a specific industry for which his/her decision may affect their interests.

Staffing industry groups provide political donations to Tamura and purchase fund-raising party tickets from him.

Keidanren on July 24 announced its demands for a revision of the law on the use of agency workers. As their end goal, Keidanren will seek abandonment of the law’s key principle of preventing employers from replacing full-time workers with agency workers and extension of the legal limit on the use of agency workers in order for companies to use such workers as long as they want.

“Under the DPJ-led government, we suffered from its ‘mistaken stance’. Now is our chance as the LDP-Komei coalition has come back to power,” proclaimed a representative of the staffing service industry.