Double-dispatch arrests trigger firm’s liquidation
Goodwill Group said Wednesday it will close its scandal-tainted temp staff unit Goodwill Inc. by the end of July because the health ministry is preparing to revoke its business license.
Goodwill Inc. said it will ask its clients to directly hire its temp staff assets or ask other temp staff firms to take them on by the end of next month.
Meanwhile, the company’s 4,200 or so full-time employees will be asked to quit, it said, adding that the group is unable to transfer them internally because of financial problems.
Goodwill Inc. President Kazuaki Nakamoto will resign when the firm is liquidated to take responsibility for the closure. The other board members will quit on Monday.
The announcement came a day after the Tokyo Summary Court ordered the staffing agency to pay ¥1 million in fines for dispatching temp workers to companies that sent them on to work at other firms ? a practice known as double-dispatch, which is banned by the Employment Security Law. Goodwill paid the fine Tuesday.
Double-dispatch is prohibited because it blurs the legal responsibilities for worker safety and other aspects of the working environment.
In the past several years, Japanese companies have been hiring more temporary workers to cut personnel costs. But this has led to an increase in the so-called working poor, especially among the younger generations.
“Workers at Goodwill are switching to other agencies and are dispatched in a similarly illegal manner,” Sekine said. “The problem will not end just by revoking Goodwill’s license.”