JCP demands that government take steps to deal with increasing use of temporary workers

In the House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting on March 9, Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission chair, raised the question of the lack of government regulations over the rapidly increasing use of temporary workers.

Koike pointed out the sharp increase in contracts under which service providers send workers to certain production lines or sales units of a firm. He said that all the workers on the production line at the Fuji Xerox Ebina plant are reportedly workers sent from a service provider company.

Koike stated that service providers actually support jobs at Japan's major electronics and car makers. Such contract work reportedly includes 1 million jobs at 10,000 firms.

In the last five years, the number of full-time employees decreased by 4 million, while that of part-timers, contact, or temporary staffing workers increased by 3.7 million, Koike said.

Koike cited examples of hardships young workers are suffering, including one worker who was forced to change jobs eight times in four years and another who was working one day in Aomori Prefecture in the north and told to work from the next day in Saga Prefecture in Kyushu.

Koike criticized large corporations for taking advantage of the widespread labor management method of making young temporary workers work under severe conditions for low wages. He asked, "Should Japan allow firms to hire young people as if they were items for rent?"

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro answered that the use of contingent workers cannot be said to be categorically wrong, but that their working conditions need to be improved.

Pointing out the responsibility of the government for causing the massive increase in unstable jobs by lifting a legal ban on using leased labor on production lines, Koike demanded that any minister in charge of contingent labor raise his/her hand. No hand was raised. (end)