A bill to revise the worker dispatch law that the Abe administration has resubmitted to the Diet carries the potential of increasing the number of workers dispatched to businesses on a temporary status, possibly adding to the instability of conditions faced by many Japanese workers. Lawmakers need to shed light on the consequences of such a move by thoroughly debating it in the Diet and persuade the administration to rethink the revision.

The basic point of the amendment is to allow companies to use dispatched temporary staff for the same job indefinitely as long as they replace individual workers every three years. Currently the 1986 law on the dispatch of temporary workers bans the use of such workers for the same job for more than three years, except in 26 fields requiring special skills like interpretation and secretarial work. The bill was first tabled in the last regular Diet session but was scrapped due to errors found in its text.

Companies will be required to hear opinions of their labor unions when they want to use temporary workers for the same position for more than three years. But the unions do not have the power to override management decisions. The bill also makes it obligatory for dispatch agents to introduce new jobs to workers who have worked for three years in the same job at the same company or to ask the company to directly hire such workers. Dispatch agencies will also be called on to help the temporary workers hone their job skills to improve their career prospects. But it is unclear how much these measures will contribute to the job security of temporary workers.