Business suspension imposed on major subcontractor

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Business suspension imposed on major subcontractor

A major subcontractor, Collaborate Co., was ordered to suspend its business by the Osaka Labor Bureau on October 3 on the grounds that it dispatched its workers to manufacturers' plants under the practice of "disguised contract work".

This is the first time that a business suspension is ordered because of the illegal "disguised contract work".

Collaborate, a core affiliate of major staffing agency Crystal Group, was ordered to suspend its business at its office in Himeji City in Hyogo Prefecture for a month and at 83 other offices for two weeks.

The Osaka Labor Bureau has found that the Himeji office had leased about 50 workers to a factory in neighboring Kakogawa City for several years until last August. Collaborate pretended that it had contracted for the plant's specific tasks while the workers had actually been working under the factory's supervision.

In response to a Labor Bureau's inquiry last February, the company submitted a false report concluding that the situation "has been improved," and ignored the bureau's repeated instructions.

Several cases of Collaborate's "disguised contract work" practice have been revealed by workers.

Members of the All Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) Tokushima Branch uncovered the illegal labor practice at a Toyota-affiliated auto parts maker Koyo Sealing Techno Co. in Tokushima Prefecture, and the Tokushima Labor Bureau last February instructed the company to redress the situation.

In July 2005, the Osaka Labor Bureau issued an order to comply to the predecessor of Collaborate after workers at Matsushita Plasma Display Panel Co. in Osaka Prefecture filed a complaint.

A growing number of major manufacturers are using "disguised contract labor" in order to cut labor costs by forcing workers to accept low wages and endure harsh working conditions.

In order to eradicate this illegal labor practice, the government needs to impose strict punishments on not only companies sending their workers but companies using them.

It must also instruct companies to comply with the Workers Dispatch Law that requires them to offer temporary workers full-time positions after employing them over a certain period.
- Akahata, October 4, 2006