There are mounting concerns that a wave of temporary workers could lose their jobs at the end of June as companies struggle to cope with the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak.
Temporary workers contracted to work at companies until the end of June will find out if their contracts will be renewed by the end of May. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has urged Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) and other industry organizations to ensure their member companies continue to employ temp workers.
Temporary employees are dispatched from job placement agencies to work at companies. According to an Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry survey, there were 1.44 million temp workers in Japan as of March. A fiscal 2019 survey by the Japan Staffing Services Association (JASSA), a Tokyo-based general incorporated association with about 770 temporary work agencies as members, found that about 65% of temp employees on fixed-term contracts said their contract was for three months.
Rules based on the Labor Standards Law stipulate that if a company does not renew a temp worker's contract and terminates their employment, the dispatch agency must notify the employee at least 30 days before the contract expires. A growing number of companies have plunged into dire straits after closing their doors during the nationwide state of emergency declared due to the coronavirus outbreak, stoking concerns that many firms will not renew the contracts of temp employees who started working in April, the first month of the fiscal year.
In February, 282 workers were sacked or did not have their contracts extended due to the impact of the coronavirus. As of Wednesday, 11,058 such employees had lost their jobs in May alone. It was not known how many were temp workers and how many were regular permanent employees.
Alarmed by this situation, the labor ministry on Tuesday sent a written request to Keidanren and several other industry groups that asked for their member companies to refrain from hastily ending the contracts of temp workers and, if terminating a contract was unavoidable, to help find another job for that worker.
Labor bureaus in prefectures across the nation also will ask temp agencies to lean on companies to continue hiring temporary workers. JASSA has distributed a pamphlet to temp agencies offering guidelines to follow when negotiating with companies considering hiring temp workers. The advice includes, "Ensure that not renewing a worker's contract is a carefully made decision." JASSA is urging the agencies to use the pamphlet's content when holding negotiations with those companies.
The mass layoff of temp workers during the financial crisis triggered by the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers became a social issue. The number of temp workers in 2009 fell by about 300,000 from the previous year. Most of these workers had been in the manufacturing industry, which was reeling from shrinking overseas demand at the time. However, the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected a broad range of businesses, and there are fears the problem could become even more serious this time.
Shuichiro Sekine, a top official of Haken-Union, a labor union for nonregular employees including temp workers, has called on companies and the authorities to help such employees.
"I want administrative authorities to also give as much support as possible so companies don't easily let workers go as a way to adjust their personnel numbers," Sekine said.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
