Japan Press Weekly

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2007 April 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Part-timers bill passed through Lower House

A bill to revise the law on working conditions of part-time workers was passed through the House of Representatives in its plenary session on April 19 by the majority vote of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. The Japanese Communist, Democratic, Social Democratic, and People’s New parties voted against the bill.

Rejecting part-time workers’ demands for equal treatment with full-time workers, this bill will apply a ban on discriminatory treatment only to a handful of part-time workers who do work on an equal footing with full-time workers.

This bill will divide the overwhelming majority of part-time workers into several categories based on jobs and other factors to make distinctions in their working conditions, which could bring about gaps and discrimination among part-time workers.

The bill also fails to lay down rules to protect the rights of workers with fixed-term contracts that account for 70 percent of part-time workers.
-Akahata, April 20, 2007