The「2010 Equaline Counseling Casebook」 contains an analysis of consultations given by 9 branches of Equaline, a division of KWWA.

2,995 consultations in 2010

        In total, there were 2,995 consultations (with both men and women) undertaken by Equaline last year, not including reconsultations. It reveals a 17% increase from the 2,483 cases in 2009. This analysis covers women's cases only, excluding 125 men's cases, in order to have a better grasp on women workers' present situation.

The Rapid Increase of Maternity Protection Consultations

The distribution of the consultations show that the rate of maternity protection consultations, which was 656 cases in 2009 (a quarter of overall cases), jumped 31.4% to 957 consultations in 2010 (a third of overall cases). Meanwhile, working condition consultations slightly decreased by 2.1%, from 1,377 cases (55.5%) in 2009 to 1,348 cases (47.1%) in 2010. As for the other types of consultations, childcare leave cases constituted 16.1% (460 cases) of the total number of consultations, closely followed by the rate of overdue wage cases, 15.4% (441 cases) in 2009. Sexual harassment at work and maternity leaves account for 10% each.

The increase of maternity protection consultations with female workers can be explained in two ways. One is that the financial crisis in 2008 still has a negative effect on the employment of female workers who struggle with working and pregnancy or infant care. There is a considerable amount of examples where women are urged to resign because of financial difficulties, and they are given no maternity leave or unemployment benefits. The other reason could be that the women workers have decided to stand on their own feet to take back the rights that they deserve. There is a growing number of women laborers making inquiries about the subsidy for hiring a substitute employee to replace the employee on childcare leave, which means they are willing to let enterprises know how the companies can benefit from guaranteeing their rights. This reveals how determined the women workers are in order to keep their position in the company. Female workers began to become aware of the right to have and protect maternity leave; in the meantime, enterprises have been half-hearted about maternity rights, though that is only toward permanent positions.

Maternity Protection for Non-regular Workers Still Unascertained

        Those who inquired mostly over maternity protection turned out to be regular clerical workers that have worked for at least a year at a company with more than 50 employees. In other words, employees can demand maternity protection because they have comparably stable jobs.

Overdue Wage Problems at Businesses with Less than 30 Employees and Employees Older than 30

        Working condition consultations amounted to 1,377 cases in 2009, showing a decrease of 2.1% compared to 2007. The decrease is possibly influenced by the fact that there are manifold routes to seek advice about problems and that the Minister of Labor had started to clamp down on consultations. The overdue wage issues had the highest rate of all the consultation topics with 32.7%, and occupational hazard and the 4 types of insurance followed the second highest with 20.4%.

A Sharp Increase of Part-time Female Workers' Consultations

        Noticeably, in 2010, we held consultations with more clients with part-time jobs than ever. The clients working part-time formed 16% of the total with 149 cases, which is more than twice as many as the previous year, which only had 73 cases, or a tenth of the total. Based on the “Actual Economically Active Population,” the number of part-time female workers had grown from 15.2 % of the total in 2009 to 16.4% in 2010,.

        High Rate of Resignation among Non-regular Female Workers who have been Sexually Harassed

        The percentage of consultations with victims of sexual harassment are 38% after leaving the company and 62% while still employed. Also, there is a distinct and proven correlation between the rate of resignation and the size of the company, the length of service, and the type of employment. The smaller the size of the company and the length of service, the higher the rate of resignation. The rate of resignation rose up to 50% for temporary employees. For day laborers, it was 100%. Those facts support the claim that there should be strict discipline for the wrongdoers, sexual harassment awareness programs, a plan to help the victims, etc.

(tag : sexual harassment at work, non-regular position, maternity protection, maternity leaves, overdue wages, consultation)