Toyota will launch a programme next spring to recommend seasonal plant workers to group companies and subcontractors as full-time employees when employment contracts with them expire, company officials said on Wednesday.

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The programme will pave the way for stable employment of such workers while supporting Toyota group companies’ efforts to maintain the quality of products in the face of labour shortages caused by improving economic activity in Japan, they told Kyodo News.


Toyota employs seasonal plant workers for four to six months and extends contracts with competent workers for up to 35 months, the report noted.


Under the planned programme that will apply to term workers subject to the maximum 35-month extension, Toyota Smile Life, an outplacement unit of the Toyota group, will recommend the workers to group companies in need of manpower when their extended contracts expire.


While as many as 10,000 seasonal plant workers support Toyota’s brisk auto production resulting from strong global sales, it rehires competent workers as full-time employees, Kyodo News said. In fiscal 2006 to next 31 March, the number of rehired workers is expected to reach 950.

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For Aichi Prefecture where Toyota is headquartered, the shortage of labour is ”the biggest problem” as the ratio of job offers to seekers is higher than any other prefecture, a Toyota official told the news agency, adding that the planned programme will benefit both motivated seasonal workers and companies trying to secure enough manpower.