Aso Cabinet approves bill to revise Worker Dispatch Law

Japan Press Weekly

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Aso Cabinet approves bill to revise Worker Dispatch Law

The Aso Cabinet on November 4 approved the bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law that includes a provision prohibiting in principle the use of temporary workers as day laborers.

Apparently urged by public opinion and the labor movement, the government has decided to amend the law to strengthen regulations instead of continuing with deregulation.

The bill prohibits the use of temporary workers for a term of less than 30 days. However, the staffing agency can continuously send workers to different workplaces if it concludes a contract to that effect. In addition, highly specialized 18 categories of work, including that of interpreter, are exempted from the 30-day limit.

The Worker Dispatch Law was adversely revised in 1999, leading to a rapid increase in the use of temporary workers as day laborers. The revised law allows temporary workers to be used in all job categories.

The present bill will enable the authorities to recommend the user of the temporary workers to employ them directly if there was an illegal use of them.

Compared to the current law that does not hold companies accountable for the illegal use of temporary workers, the present bill will provide some improvement although it is far from being enough. It is necessary to establish a provision that if there was an illegal use of temporary workers, companies (users of temporary workers) should be considered to be on contract with the temporary workers.

The bill does not require companies to provide equal treatment to temporary workers. This is different from European countries where temporary workers are treated equally with full-time workers. The proposed bill does not include upper limits on the rate of commissions that staffing agencies receive from companies.

In contrast, if temporary workers have a contract without expiry, the bill allows companies to choose particular temporary workers and exempts companies from the obligation to offer direct employment. This provision was included in response to the demand of the business circles and is contrary to the principle that the use of temporary workers should be permitted only for temporary and general work.

The Japanese Communist Party is calling for the Worker Dispatch Law to be transformed into a Law to Protect Temporary Workers, emphasizing that the law should be restored to status quo ante (1999), that temporary workers must in principle be employed by staffing agencies, that the use of temporary workers as day laborers should be prohibited, and that the use of temporary workers who signed up at staffing agencies should be allowed only in exceptional cases and severely restricted. - Akahata, November 5, 2008