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Temp IT worker goes postal in Kawasaki

Resentment among temp workers in the IT sector, who receive lower wages and benefits despite performing virtually the same tasks as permanent company staff, may be starting to flare up.

Nikkan Gendai (Sept 28) reports that at Fujitsu's plant in Kawasaki City on Sept 25, a 29-year-old male worker dispatched from a temp firm, during his lunch break, stabbed a 30-year-old female employee, a regular staff member, in the back with a kitchen knife. He then committed suicide by driving the knife into his chest.

While termed "plant," the Fujitsu facility where the incident occurred is a white-collar environment engaged in R&D, and as such, the tabloid reports, is unprecedented. Blog entries on the web have hinted at an on-the-job romance gone sour, but so far the deceased worker's motive remains unclear.

Fujitsu's public relations office would only say that it was "investigating matters" and would "make efforts to prevent a recurrence." But Nikkan Gendai claims it has looked into the work environment and uncovered "terrible" discrimination against outsourced workers.

"Wage differences are just one form of discrimination," a 30-year-old temp worker tells the newspaper. "Even the temporary staff who work in the IT sector are skilled labor. A lot of company regulars are hard to get along with, and 'ijime' (teasing or abuse) starts happening. This typically goes ignored by management, even though it affects performance on the job.

"The regulars might put us down, with contemptuous or abusive remarks like, 'Isn't that just what you'd expect from a temporary.' It's intolerable."

Another temp worker in his 30s tells Nikkan Gendai that the regulars "take all the credit when things go right, and make temps shoulder the blame when things go wrong."

"Even though we're doing the same jobs, you don't dare speak what's on your mind to a regular worker, even one younger than you. If you speak to them frankly, you get a sour expression in return. Or if you have to put in overtime due to a mistake they made, they'll bitch, complaining, 'That's what we get for using incompetent temp staff.'

"A lot of temporary workers are stressed out by this treatment and are near boiling point."

At the end of the last June, the number of workers with temp status had increased to some 3 million. A result, Nikkan says, of the "phony reforms" pushed by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"The hope of getting re-hired by a company as a regular staff member is just a pipe dream," a male temporary in his 20s says. "Without special connections, there's no way you can pull it off."

For the time being at least — to coin a mixed metaphor — when regulars bare their fangs, the temps will just have to bite the bullet.

September 28, 2006

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