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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Long-term temps demand direct employment

Thirty temporary workers, who work for long periods in a factory of Toyota Motor Corporation's sub-subsidiary supplier of oil seals used for auto parts, on December 9 demanded that the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare and the Tokushima Prefectural Labor Bureau issue a warning to the company to directly employ them. Action of this kind is rare in Japan.

They are workers employed by two contractors that have a contract with Koyo Sealing Techno Co., Ltd. (Koyo), Toyota's sub-subsidiary.

However, "contract work" is in name only.

Together with other Koyo workers, they manufacture oil seals in Koyo's plant. Koyo pays the contractors 1,600-1,700 yen an hour for each worker, and the worker receives 1,100 yen from their employers (contractors). These contractors invest no money at all in the manufacturing or processing work. Koyo provides all needed machines and materials.

This is clearly "temporary work."

The 2004 revision of the Worker Dispatch Law requires manufacturers to directly hire temporary workers if their working period exceeds one year until 2007.

In September last year, those temporary workers joined a regional branch of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU). Since then, they have demanded that Koyo Sealing Techno directly hire them, but the company rejected their claim. On December 9, the 30 workers simultaneously filed a complaint to the labor ministry and the regional labor bureau based on the Worker Dispatch Law.

At Koyo Sealing Techno, temporary workers are forced to work for 3-4 million yen lower yearly wages than regular workers. Their struggle will make a difference in the present mechanism in which both contractors and companies that are supplied with temporary workers can make huge profits from "disguised contract work."

"Contract work" is a system in which workers, independent of a company's administration, complete a specific work task ordered by the company. "Temporary work" is a system in which a staffing agency leases workers to companies.
- Akahata, December 20, 2005