派遣法改正案 処遇向上の実効性を高めたい

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Bill should ensure better treatment of temporary employees at firms
派遣法改正案　処遇向上の実効性を高めたい

A bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law, over which the ruling and opposition parties confronted each other, passed the House of Representatives on Friday.
　与野党の対決法案である労働者派遣法改正案が衆院を通過した。

The House of Councillors, to which the bill has been sent, must deepen constructive discussions on it to improve treatment of temporary workers and stabilize their employment.
　派遣労働者の処遇向上と雇用安定のため、参院では、建設的な議論を深める必要がある。

If enacted, the bill will virtually abolish the limit on the length of time that companies can use dispatched workers. On the other hand, staffing agencies will be obliged to take measures to support temps in career enhancement, such as training programs, and to stabilize their employment by asking companies where they work to hire them directly.
　改正案は、企業が派遣労働者を受け入れる期間の制限を事実上なくす。一方で、派遣会社に対し、計画的な教育訓練など、派遣労働者のキャリアアップ支援や、派遣先への直接雇用の依頼といった雇用安定措置を義務づけている。

The current law mainly aims to prevent companies from replacing regular employees in some jobs with temps.
　現行法は、企業が正社員の仕事を派遣労働者に切り替えるのを防ぐことを主眼にしてきた。

Therefore, the law makes three years the maximum length of time for companies to use dispatched workers except in some specialized jobs. On the other hand, the law does not have enough regulations to protect jobs and the working conditions of temps.
　そのため、一部の専門業務を除き、企業の派遣受け入れ期間を最長３年に制限している。反面、派遣労働者の雇用や待遇を守る規定が手薄だった。

As there is a wider variety in ways to work in our society, the bill seeks to move the legal emphasis from protection of regular employees at companies where temps work to protection of temporary employees. We think this concept of the bill is reasonable.
　多様な働き方が広がる中、派遣先の正社員の保護から派遣労働者の保護に軸足を移す。改正案のこの考え方は妥当である。

However, the Democratic Party of Japan and some other parties oppose the bill because they say it will only increase the number of temps. They also criticize a measure stipulated in the bill to support them in career enhancement as “not viable.”
　民主党などは「派遣労働者を増やす」と反対し、キャリアアップ支援なども「実効性がない」と批判している。

Enhanced govt supervision

However, the bill will put all the staffing companies under a license system and strengthen government supervision of them. If it functions effectively, this system will contribute to the betterment of employment conditions for temps.
　だが、改正案は、派遣会社を全て許可制とし、政府の監督体制を強化する。制度が有効に機能すれば、処遇改善に寄与しよう。

The Japan Innovation Party helped the bill pass in the lower house. Though it opposed the bill, the JIP made a deal with the ruling parties and participated in a vote on the bill. The JIP and the ruling parties agreed with each other to work for the enactment of a separate bill proposed by the JIP and others to promote the principle of equal pay for equal work after making some revisions of it.
　改正案の衆院通過は、維新の党が後押しした。改正案には反対したが、与党と協調し、採決には応じた。維新などが提出した「同一労働同一賃金」推進法案を修正のうえ、成立させることで、与党と一致したためだ。

The initial bill would have required companies to pay the same wages for temps and regular workers doing the same job.
　当初案は、派遣労働者と正社員の仕事が同じなら賃金も等しくする「均等待遇」を求めていた。

But the phrase “balanced treatment” was added to the revised bill to allow companies to change employment conditions for regular and temporary workers after considering whether they can work overtime or be transferred to different workplaces. We think the revision is pragmatic, considering the reality of the corporate sector in Japan, where traditional practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based remuneration are still strongly rooted.
　修正案には「均衡待遇」との表現を加えた。転勤や残業の有無など正社員と派遣労働者の立場の違いを考慮した処遇を認めるものだ。終身雇用や年功賃金の慣行が根強く残る日本の企業社会を考えれば、修正は現実的である。

Deliberations on the bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law took a total of 30 hours in the lower house. We praise the JIP for making concessions to the ruling parties without stringing out deliberations unnecessarily.
　改正案の衆院審議は約３０時間に上った。維新が審議をいたずらに引き延ばさず、与党に歩み寄ったのは、前向きに評価できる。

What disappointed us is the behavior of the DPJ. The party opposed efforts by the ruling parties to end deliberations on the bill at the lower house Committee on Health, Labor and Welfare and used force to prevent its chairman from entering the conference room. That caused an injury to the neck of the chairman, which will take two weeks to heal completely.
　あきれるのは、民主党の対応である。与党が衆院厚生労働委員会の質疑を終結しようとしたのに反発し、委員長の入室を阻止する「実力行使」に出た。委員長は、首に全治２週間のけがを負った。

Akira Nagatsuma, acting president of the DPJ, defended the obstruction of deliberations, saying, “It would not be in line with Japan’s national interests if the opposition sat quietly and let the bill pass.”
　長妻昭代表代行は、「野党がお行儀よく座って、法律を通してしまうことが国益にかなうのか」などと審議妨害を正当化した。

However, this exceeded the role of an opposition party in resisting the ruling camp. The DPJ must be criticized more severely than ever.
　これでは、「抵抗野党」の域を超えている。より厳しく批判されるのは当然である。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 20, 2015)