Lawyers and academics set up national group to help establish basic rights of contingent workers

Japan Press Weekly

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

Lawyers and academics set up national group to help establish basic rights of contingent workers

Lawyers and academics who are involved in research and practical activities in defense of the rights of part-time workers and temporary workers launched the “National Forum in Support of Contingent Workers’ Rights” on November 22.

Participants in the launching assembly in Tokyo included well-known lawyers who are addressing problems facing contingent workers associated with credit card debts and high interest rate non-bank loans. Citizens and workers interested in contingent workers’ rights also attended the assembly.

In the keynote speech, Wakita Shigeru, professor at Ryukoku University, said, “It has become possible for us to win a revision of laws in response to workers’ demands to reverse the deregulation of labor laws.”

The assembly decided to use this national forum to hold meetings to share experiences in the movement calling for a far-reaching revision of the Worker Dispatch Law and in labor lawsuits in support of temporary workers.

The national forum will also call for the need to regulate companies’ use of fixed-term contract workers.

In the symposium held during the assembly, several contingent workers denounced their harsh working conditions.

A woman temporary worker said, “The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, one of Japan’s megabanks, dismissed me after having me work under the same conditions as full-time workers and for longer than the term of contract.”

A non-permanent employee at a national hospital said, “After I was forced to accept a wage cut, I began to work two jobs, as a non-permanent hospital employee during the day and as a security guard at the same hospital at night in order to make ends meet.”

Yoshioka Tsutomu, who is in a court struggle against Matsushita Plasma Display (currently Panasonic Plasma Display), said, “The Osaka High Court has supported my condemnation of the company’s use of temporary workers as independent contractors. I am fighting to have the Supreme Court establish its ruling.”

- Akahata, November 23, 2009