In his opening speech representing the organizers, General Secretary Kusano said, “there is a wide gap between the views of the government’s Council for Regulatory Reform and those of RENGO. Today at this workshop we would like to unify RENGO’s stance on work rules and set out the direction for future movements regarding this matter.”
RENGO Department of Working Conditions Executive Director Tatsui explained actions conducted thus far and the government’s on-going position. He said, “we will make a torrent of movements early on to establish those work rules which RENGO offers.”
Continuing, Hosei University Law Professor Akira Hamamura, JAM (Japanese Association of Metal, Machinery and Manufacturing Workers) General Secretary Oyama (member of the labor condition subcommittee), and RENGO Employment and Wage Division Director Nakamura (member of the employment security subcommittee) explained the problems of regulatory reform in labor. Oyama stressed that “We are concerned that the Minister’s announcement without legislative reform might gradually undermine the system by changing the applicable limits of worker dispatch and the discretionary labor system.” (*Translator’s Note: The Revised Labor Standard Law restricts dispatch work to three years and twenty six services with some conditions and limits the discretionary labor system to eleven services which require special skills.)

At the discussion period, some of the opinions presented on the floor included: “are labor’s opinions difficult to reflect in councils?” (RENGO Hiroshima) and “contract service work is rife with instances of circumventing application of the Worker Dispatch Law. We want guidelines from RENGO to show us how they will wrestle with these problems.”(JICHIRO: All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers’ Union) JAM General Secretary Oyama responded saying, “labor-related councils have conventionally heeded the discussions made by these three groups, but this time appears different. We must foster movements for labor’s sake.” Director Nakamura said that, “although there is a criterion to judge whether it is worker dispatch or contract service work, actual conditions have not been scrutinized. We will discuss clarification of employers’ responsibilities.”

Finally, RENGO Executive Director Tatsui summarized the workshop saying, “from here out, we want to develop proactive movements. Further, labor unions should develop movements that focus on irregular workers from within own jurisdiction to establish work rules.” Then, the workshop closed with a three-cheer shout led by Assistant General Secretary Hayashi.