It is hoped a new rule will provide the opportunity to review the unstable work style of non-regular employees, and steadily advance the improvement of their working conditions.
People on fixed-term employment contracts, such as part-timers and contract employees, who work for more than five years at the same workplace can change their status to permanent, like regular workers who are employed for an indefinite period. This "rule for changing status to permanent" was introduced under the revised Labor Contract Law, which took effect in 2013.
The rule will be fully implemented from April because there will be people to whom it can apply as a result of five years passing since the revision to the law came into force.
In many cases, part-time workers and contract employees continue to work for long periods of time through repeated contract renewals. There are 15 million limited-term employees. Of them, 30 percent are said to have worked in the same place for more than five years.
In reality, they have become a regular workforce that is indispensable to companies.
The rule is intended to eliminate concerns among non-regular workers who do not know when their contracts will be terminated, as well as to stabilize employment. These aims of the new rule are understandable.
The number of non-regular employees has increased to nearly 40 percent of the nation's total working population, spreading to include breadwinners. Improving the working conditions of these workers is also vital from a growth strategy perspective.
If an eligible non-regular employee wants to change their status to permanent, they must request to do so. Companies cannot reject any such request. What should their work duties and conditions be like after they change status? Companies should consider ways to utilize human resources from a long-term viewpoint and steadily develop systems, including the revision of their rules of employment.
Thoroughly inform public
The rule only stipulates the change of employment period and does not call for salaries and promotions of non-regular employees to be equal to those of regular employees. Their treatment should be well-balanced in workplaces while ensuring various working styles for them.
Hopes are high that the so-called "limited regular corporate employees" who work as regular staff but under conditions that limit duties, work locations and hours could be a key category in which to accommodate workers whose statuses change from non-regular to permanent. Because their conditions are limited, while pay and job security differs to those of general regular workers, they can be promoted to higher positions and statuses.
The spread of limited regular employees is likely to promote active roles for women who cannot accept overtime work and relocations due to child-rearing.
A survey conducted last year by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation showed that 80 percent of limited-term workers did not know about the content of the new rule. The government and companies must make efforts to inform the public of it thoroughly.
Against the backdrop of a manpower shortage, many companies have already made moves to make non-regular workers permanent employees and promote them to become regular employees. Meanwhile, there have been cases of non-regular workers' contracts being terminated before their employment duration reaches five years and upper limits being set on contract renewal to prevent people from becoming applicable to the rule. Consideration is needed to avoid creating confusion.
Improving treatment of workers, including stable employment, can increase the motivation of workers and enhance productivity. It would also make it easier for companies to secure human resources. Ideas for making the new rule instrumental to the creation of vigorous workplaces are crucial.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 3, 2018)
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