Photo/Illutration Union members protest against a staffing company that terminated temporary workers’ contracts in June citing the COVID-19 pandemic, on June 30 in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Temporary workers in Japan are being jettisoned en masse by companies, with 160,000 fewer holding jobs in July than at the same time a year ago, according to the central government’s latest data.

The drop recorded in a labor survey released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Sept. 1 is the largest since 2014 when comparable data became available.

“I have received many reports from temporary staffing companies and organizations. But the survey shows the number of temporary workers decreased by 160,000,” Labor Minister Katsunobu Kato said Sept. 1, expressing concern at a news conference held after a Cabinet meeting.

Kato said the ministry, preparing for the next temporary worker contract renewal period at the end of September, urged businesses at the end of August not to let temporary workers go and to utilize a government subsidy to keep them.

Experts and workers' support groups had warned that temporary workers would face a crisis near the end of June, predicting many employers would be unlikely to renew the three-month contracts that came up for renewal at that time.

Their predictions became reality.

A woman in her 40s originally from the Philippines was employed as a temporary worker at an automobile parts company in Aichi Prefecture.

At the end of April, her boss told her, “The first day after the Golden Week holidays, you're on the night shift.”

But right before the company was to resume post-holiday operations in May, her temporary staffing company informed her, “Your contract has been terminated.”

A sharp decrease in demand curtailed production at the company, apparently affecting the factory where she worked.

“I’m on welfare now,” the woman said. “Does (the company) just get rid of me as soon as I'm not needed?”

She is a single mother raising a son attending high school. She is also burdened with having to cover a relative’s expensive medical fees. Without the factory job, she doesn't have enough to live on.

To get by, the woman applied for social assistance with the help of the Nagoya Fureai Union.

Temporary workers have been “axed altogether in the automobile industry,” a union representative said.

“It's unlikely the labor situation will return to pre-coronavirus levels,” the representative added.

The labor ministry is also worried about the crisis.

Kato at the end of May implored temporary staffing companies and other related business groups not to terminate workers' contracts so easily and to maintain employment as much as possible.

He urged temporary staffing companies in particular to keep contracts alive even if they are unable to find a new placement for temporary workers.

Kato asked them to use the central government’s emergency subsidy for the pandemic and put temporary workers “on leave.”

But the minister’s request has no teeth.

The ministry said it does not know how many staffing companies, if any, have utilized the subsidy and kept a temporary worker employed, even if they cannot find a new placement for the worker.

Temporary workers who have lost jobs and their supporters at the end of July urged the ministry to take further measures, saying that staffing companies have not followed the minister’s requests.

(This article was written by Ken Sakakibara and Sawa Okabayashi.)

Related News