Toyota to hire contract workers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is hiring 800 contract workers in Japan in its first such job increase in more than a year amid signs of a global recovery led by brisk sales of its Prius hybrid.

Most will start working next month at Toyota Motor Corp.'s Tsutsumi plant, central Japan, which makes the Prius and other models for the Japanese market, the world's No. 1 automaker said Tuesday.

Toyota now employs 1,300 contract workers in Japan, down from the peak of 11,600 employed in June 2005 when auto sales were booming. Such workers are hired for limited periods unlike the 70,000 full-time workers in Japan, who are guaranteed “lifetime employment.”

Toyota reduced its contract workers amid the global slump in auto sales by not renewing their contracts or promoting them to full-time. The Japanese automaker employs more than 300,000 workers worldwide.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20090909/MONEY/709099951

[liberal N proud]

1. New manufacturing model

Hire a core group of employees who are much smaller in number than necessary to run the operation. Then fill the rest of the positions with temps.

If the times are lean, you dump the temps and run the company with the core group.

Seeing this in several companies. Most just not publicly saying they are hiring temps.

[comtec]

2. That is insane imho

temps cost 2-3x as much as regular workers.
all you get is the 'freedom' to can them as you want.
but you are still paying the agency a stupid amount a month for each worker.
the ability to fire a employee has to be cheaper than what you pay extra over time!
Here in Holland a employee on a permanent contract is admittedly very expensive to fire without good cause.. and even then...
but that is usually a 2-3 year process before they are permanent. And if you perm a employee they are probably worth it.

In these 'lean times' my company is tossing everyone who has a perm contract coming up. that may be a little short sighted, but it also means that they can bring them back in 3 months if things improve with a new set of contracts (I had to do that for assorted reasons)

There are ways around the law that are much cheaper. And using temps that's just.... but yes that does seem to be the way of things.
I remember during the boom, that being "bought" by a company was a badge of honor - that is you are on the company;s payroll and not a temp agency.

It just sickens me how labor is seen and treated...it's like the golden union age of the 20th century never happened! =[

[customerserviceguy]

4. Maybe in Holland they pay a lot for a temp

but here in America, the temp worker is the one who bears the brunt of the cost. Here, the temp takes home less than half of what he/she would make if hired outright.

Why temp? Sometimes its the only way to get a job, the temp companies seem to have many of them all sewn up. Companies are afraid of hiring 'problem' workers, they prefer to trust a temp agency to send them reliable workers, that they can then watch up close for a few months. Usually, personality traits that are undesirable show up in that time, so they can be assured that they have someone who is worth hiring outright.

It's the only way I would have gotten a real job when I moved to this side of the country a couple of years ago.

[Skink]

5. I remember temping a lot in Ca getting 6 an hour meanwhile the agency was getting 15.

Now granted they must of had some form of health insurance and some other associated costs besides the temps salary but even so.

[liberal N proud]

7. But the $15 is still less than they would pay a full time employee

Then there are the benefits to figure in and in the case of the auto workers, they figure the factory lighting is a benefit.


Temps are definitely cheaper than full employee and disposable.

[comtec]

8. Japan has national health care

best in the world by some measures.
The wait time is near 0.
Anyway that 15 that was mentioned before, is more than that employee will ever see for that position.
Literally it's cheaper to buy the person outright.

I don't think there's an advantage beyond power and control (ego) in Japan.

but I could be wrong - and it's likely LOL

[tomm2thumbs]

3. i bet they learned this in their visits to america - no irony there

[apnu]

6. IBM has been doing this for a long time (nt)