The labor ministry has meted out administrative punishment against major employment agency Goodwill Inc. This case and other incidents point to the need for the government and lawmakers to move quickly to improve conditions for temporary day laborers, including revising the manpower dispatching business law.

The ministry has suspended the operations of Goodwill's 708 branches nationwide for either two or four months because the firm dispatched temporary day laborers to unauthorized fields such as stevedoring and construction and, separately, dispatched laborers to three companies that in turn sent them to other companies, a maneuver that is banned under the employment security law. The three companies have also been punished. The Tokyo Labor Bureau also has filed an accusation with police against Towa Lease Co. for allegedly sending workers from Goodwill to another port service company.

Temporary day laborers receive job offers from temp staff companies via telephone or e-mail and are dispatched to workplaces with one-day contracts. The 1999 revision of the manpower dispatching business law liberalized this form of employment. The ministry's survey last summer shows that most temp day laborers are in their 20s and 30s and earn ¥150,000 or less per month. They may be unable to pay premiums for public health insurance and pension programs. Some of them have lost abodes and stay in Net cafes.