Corporate efforts to cut labor costs by reducing the number of regular employees and hiring more part-time and dispatch workers are actually stifling productivity and hampering economic growth, a government report said Tuesday. In its annual white paper on labor and the economy, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare suggested that companies return to…

A ruling coalition project team Tuesday compiled a package of recommendations to tighten restrictions on the temp staff industry, including a ban on dispatches of low-skilled day laborers. The team of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito submitted the package to Yoichi Masuzoe, the minister of health, labor and welfare, urging him to revise…

The ruling coalition plans to oblige staffing agencies to disclose their commissions and call on client companies to take responsibility for covering temp workers’ compensation insurance, according to a draft plan aimed at reforming the labor dispatch system. The plan by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, revealed Wednesday, also seeks to address the…

A ruling coalition task force agreed Wednesday that temp staff agencies should be banned from dispatching workers on a single-day basis, a practice criticized for spawning the “working poor” phenomenon and exacerbating social disparities, lawmakers said. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and junior coalition partner New Komeito plan to recommend ways of amending the worker…