DYLJ and JCP demand government efforts to provide jobs for youth

   About 50 representatives of Tokyo’s Democratic Youth League of Japan and Japanese Communist Party visited the Labor Ministry on March 5 to demand that the government take immediate measures to increase full-time job opportunities for young people.

   The action was organized based on a survey of about 850 people, conducted by the JYLJ and JCP between March and December last year.

   At the ministry, DYLJ Tokyo Committee Chair Kozai Katsusuke said, “The government should take steps to drastically increase the number of job counseling offices and enable contingent workers to work under decent conditions.

   One participant said, “I was told by a major insurance company that I would be paid 140,000 yen a month, but in reality I was asked to pay company-related phone bills. The company even threatened to fire me in case of I failed to fulfill my quota.”

Another said, “On the day I started working, I was told by the company that the Labor Standards Law does not apply in our workplace.”

   JCP candidate for the House of Representatives Tanigawa Tomoyuki said, “Even full-time workers do not have a health insurance. There are even companies that make clear in their help-wanted ads that they do not provide social insurances. The government should correct such practices.”

   A Labor Ministry official said that it will make an effort to redress employers’ illegal labor practices such as failure to pay for overtime work.

   JCP House of Councilors member Koike Akira and JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members took part in the representations.

- Akahata, March 6, 2008