Kyoto University will not renew the employment contracts of about 100 part-time staffers whose five-year contracts will expire in fiscal university officials said Friday.
The step apparently reflects the severe finances of the state-run university amid the deepening recession, said the officials, citing an annual reduction of about 1 billion yen in state subsidies to the university.
The decision has sparked criticism from university staffers, who say part-timers play an important role in enhancing the academic and educational levels of Kyoto University.
Other state-run universities have also been trimming operational costs by terminating part-time employment contracts.
Kyoto University, in the face of the subsidy cut, is being forced to cut its personnel expenses and so the number of its full-time employees. As a result, research work initially assigned to full-time staffers is being shouldered by part-timers.
As of December, about 2,600 people worked at Kyoto University on a part-time basis. Of them, about 1,300 were employed after a maximum five-year-contract rule was introduced in connection with part-timers in March 2005.
The 100 part-timers affected by the recent decision are the first employees whose contracts are to run out under the five-year rule. According to a survey conducted by the university's labor union, at least 90 of the 100 affected people want to renew their contracts.
An official with the university's personnel planning division indicated that terminating the part-time employment contracts will cause no legal problems. The official said people employed in April 2005 or later were fully informed that the nature of their job would be temporary and auxiliary, and that their contracts would end in five years.
Yoshinori Kishimoto, who heads the university's general affairs division, said the university has no plans to change the five-year limit.
"Fewer than one out of five part-time employees work for three years or more," he said.
But Koji Matsunami, chief of the school's labor union, said the termination of the employment contracts is "an act that must not be tolerated" at an educational institution whose aim is to develop human resources.
A 52-year-old part-timer at the university said its research activities would be affected if one after another veteran researcher leaves the school due to holding part-time status.
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