In March 2012 Congress passed a bill to amend the Worker Dispatch Act. The amendments will come into force this year, and provide as follows:
- The phrase 'protection of dispatched workers' has been incorporated into the title of the act and the provision on the act's purpose.
- The hiring dispatched workers for a period of 30 days or less is prohibited.
- The number of dispatched workers who can be dispatched to other group companies will be capped at 80%;
- Dispatching a worker to a company for which he or she previously worked is prohibited for a period of one year from the date of severance.
- A dispatching agency must endeavour to take measures to promote shifting dispatched workers from fixed-term contracts to indefinite contracts. The dispatching agency must notify the accepting company as to whether the dispatched worker is under a fixed-term contract. Article 40-5 will be inapplicable if the worker is under an indefinite contract.
- When a dispatching agency determines the salary of a dispatched worker, it must also consider the salary paid to regular workers who engage in the same type of work in the relevant company. The company must make an effort to disclose this information.
- A dispatching agency must disclose information such as the number of dispatched workers, the number of companies supplied and the margin ratio.
- A dispatching agency must give each dispatched worker, at the time employment commences, details of the prospective salary to be received, as well as the fees to be received by the dispatching agency for the worker dispatch.
- If a dispatching agency engages in an illegal worker dispatch, and the company supplied is aware of the illegality, then the accepting company will be deemed to have offered an employment contract to the dispatched worker. In such cases, if the worker demonstrates his or her intention to accept such offer, an employment contract between the accepting company and the worker is deemed to have been entered into. This provision is due to enter into force in 2015.
For further information on this topic please contact Hideki Thurgood Kano at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune by telephone (+81 3 6888 1000), fax (+81 3 6888 3061) or email ([email protected]).