Defend regular jobs or bust them? -- Akahata editorial, June 16

The unemployment rate remains high at nearly 5 percent, with only unstable jobs continuing to increase, keeping the job market tight.

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro boasts that his "reform" has helped to bring the 5 percent unemployment rate down to 4 percent. He is irresponsible and callous to the suffering of the people who have to lose jobs or take unstable jobs under the Koizumi "reform" policy.

The massive corporate restructuring that has swept the country has left many people without jobs, forcing them to change their life plans or putting their families into a difficult position.

Government support is extraordinary

The government is to blame for having encouraged corporations to carry out such reckless restructuring. Since the Industrial Revitalization Law went into effect in 1999 to give corporations tax relief in return for restructuring, more than 80 billion yen has been deducted from corporate taxes for cutting more than 89,000 jobs.

The Liberal Democratic and Komei parties pushed forward with such an extraordinary measure, which is almost unparalleled in the world. The Democratic Party of Japan opposed the legislation but in 2003 voted for the law to be extended with some added provisions. Supported by the ruling parties and the DPJ, a law was enacted to allow companies to transfer workers without their consent at the time of corporate divestiture.

The Japanese Communist Party opposed legislation to help corporations carry out restructuring, and called for a fundamental policy review in order to stop cheering worker dismissals. In the Diet, it criticized large corporations for their lawlessness and led the movement outside of the Diet calling for corporations to fulfill their social responsibility.

In Japan, where regulations for defending worker rights are weak, the government has destroyed even those existing regulations.

The centerpiece of such an attempt is deregulation which allows companies to increase their employment with low wages of contingent workers or workers on contract. The worker dispatch law was adversely revised in 1999 to include more categories of work, and in 2003 it was again revised to allow the law to be applied to production lines. This caused the number of contingent workers to double in 4 years to 2.13 million. Worse types of dispatch with inferior conditions is also increasing.

The Labor Standards Law was adversely revised in 1998 and 2003, easing restrictions on the use of workers on fixed-term contract. As a result, more employers are using short-term contract workers instead of full-time workers in various sectors.

It is serious that many young people with future hopes are unable to find stable jobs or are treated as disposable workers.

The government and the ruling parties are to blame for easing labor rules in submission to business circles' demands and replacing full-time jobs with unstable ones.

The Democratic Party in 1999 supported an amendment to the law on temporary workers and the measure to expand the categories of employment that can use workers on a short-term contract. Both the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and the ruling parties are in favor of easing labor regulations.

Full-time workers who have decreased in number under the industrial restructuring scheme are forced to work longer hours, sometimes without pay for overtime work.

Applying the discretionary work schedule system to while collar workers is one such example. Amendments to the Labor Standards Law in 1998 and 2003 made it easier for employers to pay only for the working hours agreed upon with labor, no matter how long they may work.

Worsening working conditions have caused an increase in karoshi (death from overwork). The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties together with the opposition Democratic Party must be held responsible for introducing or supporting such a system.

JCP has influenced real politics and produced results

The Japanese Communist Party has opposed any such attempts at adversely revising the labor laws that aggravated the employment situation and working conditions. The JCP has called for steps to end unstable employment and create stable jobs and sustainable labor conditions.

Specifically, taking up the issue of unpaid overwork, JCP lawmakers engaged in more than 240 questionings in the Diet, and the ministry concerned had to issue directives urging the management to correct nonpayment. In the past three years, corporations have paid more than 25 trillion yen in total to workers concerned. This underlines the fact that the party, in harmony with workers, is actually effecting on real-time policy changes.

A major advance of the JCP in the House of Councilors election will help establishing minimum rules to defend working people with humane working conditions. (end)