Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 25 - July 1 [LABOR]

More local gov’ts work to ensure decent wages in public contracts

An increasing number of local governments have established ordinances which stipulate that public works contracts should include labor clauses in order to guarantee decent wages to workers employed by contractors.

Even in public works projects and outsourcing contracts awarded by municipalities, public contract workers are forced to endure lower wages because of multilayered subcontracting structures and excessively competitive bidding procedures.

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the National Federation of Construction Workers’ Unions (Zenkensoren) have been calling on local assemblies to adopt a public contract ordinance to enable contractors’ workers to receive fair wages.

Currently, eleven municipalities across Japan have such an ordinance.

Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture is one of the eleven. Its ordinance is applied to public works contracts of more than 300 million yen and outsourcing contracts of over 10 million yen. According to a survey conducted by the city last year, more than 70% of respondent contractors said the local rule will improve the quality of their work.

Iwata Teruyuki of the Zenkensoren Sagamihara branch said that the ordinance contributes to better living conditions of workers on public works contracts.

Fukuoka’s Nogata City in April enforced its ordinance on public contracts. The hourly pay for outsourcing contractor workers set in the ordinance is at 836 yen, 114 yen higher than the prefectural minimum wage.

Zenroren expressed its determination to work to have the national and local governments create a system in which contractees of public works play a role in providing proper payments to workers engaged in public works.

Matsuoka Morio of the Zenkensoren said the union will monitor if workers are properly paid after the implementation of a public contract ordinance.