In an apparent bid to shore up job security, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has begun looking into revising the law to ban the dispatch of so-called registered temporary workers by staffing agencies to the manufacturing industry.
While the government and ruling bloc have so far been reluctant to amend the worker dispatch law, an increasing number of LDP lawmakers consider the revision necessary, LDP lawmakers said Thursday.
The possible policy shift comes in light of growing public criticism of manufacturers terminating employment contracts with registered temp workers at an accelerating rate amid the deepening recession.
According to the latest data compiled by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, some 466,000 dispatched workers were working in the manufacturing sector as of June 2007, including 178,000 people registered with, rather than employed by, staffing companies.
Registered workers are under unstable employment terms and, unlike temps employed by staffing agencies, lose their income sources once they lose their jobs at the firms they have been sent to.
During a Diet session last month, Prime Minister Taro Aso argued against a ban on the dispatch of registered nonregular workers to the manufacturing industry, saying temps currently working in the sector would be adversely affected as a result.
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) and the Democratic Party of Japan also appear to favor a renewed ban.