Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

Statement on the Council’s Report on “the Outline of the Bills for Partially Revising the Worker Dispatch Law and Other Related Laws”

1. On February 24, the Subcommittee on Employment Security (Chair: Prof. Isao OHASHI, Graduate School of Strategic Management, Chuo University) of the Labor Policy Council, a tripartite advisory body to the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, submitted a report on “the outline of the bills for partially revising the Worker Dispatch Law and other related laws” (hereafter, the outline of the bills). The report is based, in its contents, on the report submitted from the Labor Policy Council on December 28, 2009 which had originally been drawn up by its Working Group on Demand-Supply System of Labor Force. The Working Group barely reached an agreement to make up the original report, after thorough discussions among the three parties of labor, management and public interests within a limited time in the light of the actual situation on the shop floor. The outline of the bills, written from the viewpoint of worker protection on the basis of the Working Group’s report, can be appreciated on the whole.
   
   
2. Although some problems remain unsolved, the outline of the bills includes epoch-making contents to change from deregulation and structural reform policy which has continued until now. Specifically, it includes banning in principle problematic registration-type dispatches and dispatches to manufacturing industries. It also includes applying a system, for the first time in Japan, that the user company is deemed to offer an employment contract to the dispatched worker, in case of illegal dispatch.
   
   
3. It is recalled that a bill for revising Worker Dispatch Law was submitted to the extraordinary Diet in 2008 by the former government but was regrettably abandoned. Such a situation should never happen again. Due to easy cutting of dispatched workers such as “haken-giri” (laying off dispatch workers) in many workplaces, the worker dispatch system has become an issue of public concern. Now that a change of government is realized, the system should be shifted to the direction of worker protection. The government should immediately draft and submit bills for revising Worker Dispatch Law to the Diet, in accordance with the ILO’s tripartite principle which is now considered as the international standard especially in the developed countries, and with respect for the unanimous agreement at the Council among the three parties of labor, management and public interests.
   
   
4. RENGO, calling for an early passage of the bills to revise Worker Dispatch Law and other related laws, will develop campaigns together with its affiliates and its locals. RENGO will continue to make efforts to further strengthen worker protection and stabilize the employment, from the standpoint of working people.