The ruling coalition and government are discussing the possibility of allowing part-timers who work for an employer for more than a certain period to join the pension system, sources said.

Currently, companies are obliged to pay a half of pension premiums for their part-time employees who work more than 30 hours a week [sic].

Earlier, officials of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare tried to make some 3 million people eligible for the pension system by cutting the required hours of work to more than 20 hours a week. But those in the distribution industry, which employ many part-timers, were so vehemently opposed to the plan that the ministry dropped the idea.

But now Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly wants to allow more people to join the pension plan, prompting government and ruling coalition officials to discuss the idea of allowing part-timers who work for a certain period, probably more than one year, to join the system.

Under the idea, part-timers who work more than 20 hours a week for less than 12 months will probably be excluded from the pension system, sources said.

Currently, companies are required to pay half of pension premiums for full-time employees who work more than two months for a company.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061114p2a00m0na006000c.html

Three Chinese women working in a training program fled their workplace in Aomori Prefecture early Monday and contacted labor authorities to complain of poor conditions, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned.

The trainees came to Japan two years ago and have worked at a small sewing factory in Misawa in the prefecture.

The three women complained of working 13 hours a day, with their overtime pay falling short of the stipulated minimum wage, and rarely being allowed to use heaters even in midwinter at the company dormitory, which is a refurbished garage.

The three told the Yomiuri they could not bear the situation any longer with winter approaching.

Just after 5 a.m., the three trainees, each carrying an overnight bag, ran from the dormitory in front of the factory to a car driven by a member of a Fukui-based organization supporting foreign workers.

About two months before, the three telephoned the organization, after reading about it in a Chinese newspaper, and made plans to flee.

One of the trainees, a 32-year-old woman from Shanghai, said: “I came to Japan to earn money. I’ve been a migrant worker at sewing plants in Saipan and the United Arab Emirates, but I wasn’t treated this badly.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20061114TDY02009.htm

The government plans to make it mandatory, and no longer voluntary, that all companies in Japan report details about noncitizens when employing or dismissing them, in order to prevent an increase in illegal employment, officials said Thursday.

The details will include the names, nationalities and visa status and duration. Employers who fail to make such reports or file false reports may be fined up to 300,000 yen. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will draft an employment promotion law amendment to this effect to submit to the Diet during the ordinary session in the first half of next year, they said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061103a3.html

Sixteen Hello Work job-placement offices under the jurisdiction of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Osaka Labor Bureau have allowed employees from two organizations to engage in work performed by Hello Work offices, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Tuesday.

The employees of the Employment and Human Resources Development Organization of Japan (EHDO), an independent administrative institution in Yokohama, and the Association of Employment Development for Senior Citizens (JEED) in Tokyo, reportedly engaged in such duties as reception work and counseling for job-seekers on behalf of the Hello Work employees.

Treating employees from the two organizations as temporary workers for Hello Work without any contracts violates the Temporary Staffing Services Law. However, it has become a common practice…Hiroyuki Ito, of the bureau’s employment security section, said the incident was regrettable because office employees lack awareness of the law, although they work for public offices responsible for labor issues.��

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20061101TDY02012.htm