A revision to the labor contract law that took effect in 2013 was intended to stabilize the employment of irregular employees by requiring companies to convert workers on fixed-term contracts who have worked for the same employers for at least five years from when the law took effect into permanent employees if they so wish. In April five years will have passed since the law's implementation and cases are being reported of workers with irregular statuses being denied renewal of their contracts before they become eligible to apply for conversion to permanent status.
Businesses should stop such practices, which clearly run counter to the purpose of the revision, and instead regard full implementation of the legislation as an opportunity to reassess their employment policy, including improving the conditions of irregular workers, which should in turn benefit the employers from the viewpoint of securing manpower amid the tightening labor market.
The number of people with an irregular job status, such as part-timers and temporary workers — who are easier to hire and fire than full-time regular company employees — have increased since the 1990s and today account for nearly 40 percent of the nation's workforce. The number of workers on fixed-term contracts has reached some 15 million, of whom roughly 4.5 million are estimated to have worked with the same employers for more than five years — an indication that despite their temporary job status, many employers rely on them as an indispensable source of long-term manpower.