Japan Press Weekly

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2007 December 19 - 2008 January 8 [LABOR]

Major staffing agency to be suspended for illegal labor practices

The Labor Ministry is planning to order major staffing agency Goodwill, which uses many day laborers, to suspend its business operations due to its repeated illegal labor practices, Goodwill Group Inc., the parent company, disclosed this on December 22.

Goodwill offices have assigned temporary workers to port cargo handling in violation of the Worker Dispatch Law. The company has also been engaged in the illegal practice of “double dispatch”, sending temporary workers to companies via other companies that contracted with the staffing agency.

Of the 737 Goodwill offices throughout the nation, 89 are expected to be ordered to suspend operations for four months and the remaining offices for two months.

In June 2005, the Tokyo Labor Bureau ordered Goodwill to improve its business practices after finding that it had illegally dispatched temporary workers to construction sites.

Former Crystal, a staffing agency later bought out by Goodwill, was ordered by the Osaka Labor Bureau in October 2006 to suspend its business because it had been repeatedly engaged in the illegal labor practices of sending temporary workers under the guise of contract workers.

Another major staffing agency, Fullcast, was also ordered in August to shut down its business for up to two months for having day laborers do port cargo work.

The series of business suspension orders given to staffing agencies reflect the growing movement of temporary workers for the improvement of their working conditions.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his interpellation in the Lower House in October brought up the issue of the harsh working conditions of day laborers dispatched by staffing agencies and called on the government to drastically review its policy of deregulating labor laws.

In order to improve temporary workers’ working conditions, it is indispensable to drastically revise the Worker Dispatch Law.