Japan Press Weekly

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2007 February 21 - 27 [LABOR]

Temp childcare workers become directly employed by municipal government

Twelve temporary childcare workers, who had been dispatched by a staffing company and worked for nearly four years at a municipal childcare center in Nogi Town in Tochigi Prefecture, will become directly employed as part-timers by the municipal government.

Although these workers do the same work as the regular staff, their wages have remained markedly lower than the regular employees.

Following consultations with a Japanese Communist Party Town Assembly member about their concern over the employment situation, they joined a municipal workers’ trade union. Calling for direct employment on the basis of the Worker Dispatch Law that prohibits employers from using temporary workers longer than three years, they made representations to Tochigi Labor Bureau and negotiated with the town government.

Japan Federation of Prefectural and Municipal Workers’ Unions (Jichiroren) Vice Chair Kawanishi Reiko at a press conference stated this is Japan’s first case that temporary municipal workers have acquired a secured employment status.