Editorial: Proper safety net for growing parallel workforce

January 15 , 2020

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is preparing a bill enabling people, if they so choose, to work until the age of 79. While the bill has been submitted to the ministry’s Labor Policy Council, it also includes provisions permitting the holding of side jobs for permanent fulltime employees.

Other interesting provisions: allowing a calculus for worker’s compensation to individuals who hold two jobs and easing the terms for unemployed senior citizens to receive state subsidies even if they work more than 20 hours a week at not only one job but also in two different workplaces.

Indeed, an Internal Affairs Ministry survey found that there were 4.42 million so-called “parallel workers” in 2017, a record high 6.4% of the total Japanese workforce. For that reason, Komeito believes that a proper safety net be extended for their benefit as the Labor Ministry bill recommends.

The party asserts that parallel work leads to career development, self-fulfillment and higher incomes as the nation enters an age in which citizens can have life expectancies of 100 years. Parallel work also benefits companies, which can expect workers with a broader skill and experience base. And it plays an important role in work-style reform, which the government is advocating.

There are two concerns, both valid: the difficulty for companies track time spent doing parallel work and the risks to workers’ health from overwork. Komeito raise similar points in a proposal made to the government in December 2019, calling for steps to ensure worker health and proper time management.

The Labor Ministry has already come up with employment regulations that serve as a model in which employees can report their side jobs to their fulltime employers. Such preparations should be taken to further advance this emerging new work environment.

As of now, freelancers—who, while fully employed by a company, do not work for any specific firm for their side jobs—have the least protection under the labor law, as they cannot be compensated for work related injuries. It is thus imperative that the ministry launch fact-finding surveys and establish counseling services to cater to people who work on a freelance basis.