Future Issues of Indefinite Employment Reclassification Rule － Learning from the Precedent in South Korea －

Social Improvement and Life Design Research Department Research fellow Kim Myoungjung

■Summary

In both Japan as well as South Korea, the increase in non-regular workers can be observed as a long-term trend.
In 2007, as the increase in non-regular workers accelerated, the South Korean government implemented the “Act on the Protection of Non-Regular Workers.”
Ten years have already elapsed since South Korea introduced its Act on the Protection of Non-Regular Workers. Since this new system has been implemented, socio-economic changes and the impact of the system have somewhat reduced the ratio of non-regular workers in the workplace, but non-regular workers still account for over 30% of all jobs. Further, the malignant practice of hiring cutoff remains as it is.
Even those who have been reclassified as indefinite-term contractual workers due to the implementation of the Act on the Protection of Non-Regular Workers have seen no improvement in their working conditions, and many are faced with an increasingly wide gap in wages and benefits when compared with regular employees.
Japanese Government applied its own “indefinite employment reclassification rule” from April 2018.
Even though Section 20 of Japan’s Labor Contracts Act prohibits discrimination against fixed-term contract workers as compared with indefinite-term contract workers, it does not address discrimination against indefinite-term contract workers as compared against regular employees.
Even if hiring cutoff is not as severe as it was in South Korea, it is feared that neglecting to take measures to improve working conditions for indefinite-term contract workers will create new disparities between indefinite-term contract workers and regular employees.
We continue to monitor what measures the Japanese and South Korean governments will take to improve working conditions for non-regular workers and indefinite-term contract workers.

■Index

1――Introduction
2――Definition of non-regular employee in Japan and South Korea
　　(1) Definition of non-regular employee in Japan
　　(2) Definition of non-regular employee in South Korea
3――Background of Act on Protection of Non-regular
　employee’s enforcement and changes after that
　　(1) South Korean government enforced Act on Protection of Non-regular
　　　　employee
　　(2) Changes after enforcement of Act on Protection of Non-regular employee
　　(3) Primary Results of Labor Mobility Panel Surveys by Mode of Employment
　　　　(1 – 8)
4――The Start of an “Indefinite Employment Reclassification Rule” in Japan
5――Conclusions