(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-17 07:24

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare last week ordered temporary staffing agency Goodwill Inc to suspend its business operations for two to four months.

Sixty-seven of the 708 Goodwill branches around Japan were ordered to suspend operations for four months from tomorrow. The remaining branches must halt operations for two months. The company repeatedly violated a law governing the dispatch of temporary workers.

All 708 Goodwill branches are required to suspend all new temporary staffing operations, including the daily employment business, except for contracts already in force.

Three other companies involved in Goodwill's illegal practices, including a major distribution firm, have been ordered to improve their operations. The ministry also filed a criminal complaint against a Tokyo-based leasing company for illegally supplying temporary workers without gaining permission from the authorities.

These harsh punitive actions have shed new light on the unruly day-labor market.

The law bans the use of temporary workers for certain jobs at ports, construction sites and other places mainly because they entail serious danger for inexperienced workers. However, day laborers are often dispatched and hired for these jobs.

In another illegal practice in the industry, workers sent by a temp agency to a company are reassigned to a different firm. All these practices totally disregard the safety and rights of workers.

Goodwill's cases are especially bad. Already in 2005, the company received a business improvement order from the labor ministry for illegal labor dispatch. But it did nothing to mend its ways and continued illegal practices. That apparently suggests the company had no intention of complying with the law in the first place.

The day-labor market has grown rapidly since the regulations on temporary staffing were eased. The expansion of this job marketplace has led to a proliferation of transgressions.

Last year, Fullcast, another major temp agency, was similarly punished with a business suspension order for illegal dispatches.

Why is lawbreaking so rampant in the industry?

There are at least 50,000 day laborers in this nation. They are contacted by cellphone or e-mail about various opportunities. They work for very little money with no security for the next job.

Many find it difficult to protest against an order to do dangerous work because of the fear they may no longer receive job offers. Since they work under individual contracts with different employers, they cannot organize themselves easily.

Contractors take advantage of the weak position of day laborers, making the marketplace a breeding ground of unlawful practices.

The punitive action against Goodwill could mean unemployment for many of the workers who have been forced to toil under illegal conditions. The labor ministry and the industry should first make all possible efforts to make sure they get jobs.

The industry, so seriously infested with lawlessness, must clean itself up completely and make a fresh start. The labor ministry should also take responsibility for the situation. It has done a poor job supervising the industry amid repeated revelations about the seamy side of this employment sector.

The ministry plans to create new guidelines for the business of supplying day laborers and lay down detailed rules requiring temp agencies to offer working conditions for such people. But even that will not be enough.

The real problem is the extensive use of temporary workers in insecure positions like day laborers. It is not surprising that the labor ministry cannot effectively monitor this job market for violations when it has grown so large. The government should consider reducing, rather than increasing, the number of job categories open to temporary hiring.

The Goodwill scandal should lead to a radical overhaul of the ways the day-labor market works and is regulated by the government.

The Asahi Shimbun

(China Daily 01/17/2008 page9)