Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181) - Japan (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee notes the observations of the Japan Business Federation (NIPPON KEIDANREN) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC–RENGO) communicated with the Government’s report.

Follow-up to the recommendations of the tripartite committee (representation made under article 24 of the Constitution of the ILO)

The Committee recalls the recommendations of the tripartite committee established by the Governing Body to examine a representation alleging non-observance by Japan of the Convention (document GB.313/INS/12/3, 313th Session (March 2012)). In paragraph 43 of the report, the tripartite committee expressed its firm hope that the new bill to revise the Worker Dispatch Law would soon be enacted into law in order to ensure “adequate protection” for all workers employed by private employment agencies in accordance with Articles 1, 5 and 11 of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Bill for Partial Revision of the Act for Securing Appropriate Operation of Worker Dispatch Undertakings of Dispatch Workers was passed on 11 September 2015. In its observations, NIPPON KEIDANREN refers to the said Bill, before it was adopted, and indicates that it was formulated on the proposal of the Labour Policy Council and that the Bill was generally reasonable. The JTUC–RENGO also refers to the Bill in its observations and indicates that, in order to ensure that dispatched workers’ employment is stabilized and their treatment improved, it had strongly called for legal revisions that would contribute to worker protection, including maintaining restrictions on contract periods by job categories and applying the equal treatment principle. The Committee refers to its previous comments and expresses its firm hope, in the same way as the tripartite committee, that the revised legislation will ensure “adequate protection” for all workers employed by private employment agencies in accordance with the Convention. In view of the recent legislative amendments, the Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on the amended Worker Dispatch Law in relation to each of the provisions of the Convention and to the matters raised in the previous observation.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2016.]