The JIL Labor Flash Vol.47
Email Journal 01.08.2003
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
One out of every four major companies enlists voluntary retirees
Public Policies
Two bills passed: The Law to Promote Measures to Support Fostering
Next-Generation Youths and the Revised Child Welfare Law
News Clippings
Employees seeking a less "close, family-like relationship" with
their employers ...etc
Special Issue
Revised Labor Standards Law enacted
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators July 2003-
http://www.jil.go.jp/estatis/eshuyo/200307/econtents.htm
Current Topics
-One out of every four major companies enlists voluntary retirees-
In July, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published the
results of the 2003 survey on employment management. The survey
targeted 5,800 private-sector companies that had 30 or more regular
full-time head office employees as of January 2003.
The survey found that 8.0% of these companies enlisted voluntary
retirees during the past three years. The larger the company, the
higher this percentage: one out of every four companies with 1,000
or more employees encouraged this type of retirement.
While 80% felt that voluntary retirement was effective in reducing
personnel expenses, about 20% cited negative factors such as longer
work hours for employees that remained and loss of useful personnel.
As for the retirement age at surveyed companies, 90% had a mandatory
retirement age of 60, and 9%, over 60. Of all the companies surveyed,
67.4% had a system of extending post-retirement employment as well
as re-employing such individuals. Many smaller-scale companies,
meanwhile, used the work extension system, allowing employees reaching
mandatory retirement age to continue working for the company without
first having them retire.
The survey also revealed how the companies viewed future employment.
Fewer than 50% of large-scale companies with 1,000 or more employees
--47.5%--intended to continue employing a majority of their employees
until the mandatory retirement age. By type of industry, this percentage
was the lowest at 44.2% in the banking and insurance sectors.
Public Policies
-Two bills passed: The Law to Promote Measures to Support Fostering
Next-Generation Youths and the Revised Child Welfare Law-
The Law to Promote Measures to Support Fostering Next-Generation
Youths and the Revised Child Welfare Law were established on July 9
exactly as in the original governmental drafts. Both laws, with the
exception of certain sections thereof, will be enforced beginning
April 2005.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2003b/vol.47/twobills.html
News Clippings
-Employees seeking a less "close, family-like relationship" with their
employers-
A survey conducted by the Sanro Research Institute revealed that
the number of corporations that give employees awards for long years
of service has decreased by more than 10 percentage points over the
past decade. The survey targeted 3,000 of the Institute's member
companies, and responses were sent in by about 470.
A total of 81.6% of companies had awards for long-service employees,
which was 4.2 percentage points lower than in the previous survey
conducted in 1998, and 10.6 points lower than the 92.2% in the 1992
survey. The drop was particularly marked in large-scale companies
with 1,000 or more employees, with the percentage falling sharply
from 95.7% in 1992 to 80.2%, or down 15.5 points.
The employees, too, are changing. Awardees opt to receive commemorative
gifts in the form of gift certificates or catalogs of gift products
instead of items with the company name inscribed which most companies
used to give out on these occasions. The change in their preference
shows that their emotional ties with their companies are becoming
increasingly weaker and more business-like.
The backdrop to this appears to be the reexamination of Japanese
-style employment practices such as treatment based on seniority as
well as lifetime employment.
(Mainichi Shimbun, July)
-Hosei University to establish course to support IT management and
business startups-
Hosei University will establish in April 2004 an Innovation Management
Research Course at its vocational graduate school targeting working
people. This one-year program aims at training and fostering qualified
information technology (IT) specialists. Lectures will be given on
weekday afternoons to teach, extensively and over a short period of
time, both practical IT business and management expertise. The university
will offer an on-campus office to entrepreneurs who actually start up
businesses after graduation. It will also develop demand among companies
for such programs that their employees can attend by taking a one-year
leave of absence. The program is likely to draw keen interest in
industrial circles.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, July)
-Matsushita Electric to introduce a performance-based welfare program
next spring-
Matsushita Electric Industrial has unveiled a policy of linking
employees' welfare programs to their performance that will begin next
spring.
The company has already introduced a 'Cafeteria Plan' whereby
employees can choose their welfare program available depending on the
personal scores they have earned. The new program will vary the
employees' personal scores each year according to their performance.
Many companies have been cutting welfare expenses in recent years.
However, Matsushita's new system not only cuts welfare expenses
unilaterally; it may also increase such expenses depending on employee
performance.
According to the Institute of Labor Administration, a research
institute that conducts studies and surveys of personnel systems, it
is extremely rare for companies to introduce a performance-based system
to their welfare expenses.
(Asahi Shimbun, July)
Special Issue
-Revised Labor Standards Law enacted-
In previous issues, we have described how the outcome of the government
-proposed revisions to the Labor Standards Law was drawing strong
interest because of the big differences in the views taken by labor
and management concerning the clear-cut stipulation of dismissal rules.
A bill to revise this law was passed on June 27 at the plenary session
of the Upper House, with the ruling and opposition parties--with the
exception of the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party
--supporting the bill. Prior to this, the Lower House decided to delete
the phrase included in the government's original draft, "Employers can
dismiss workers…" and modified the rules on the maximum employment period
of three years by approving, in the bylaw, the freedom of retiremen
of workers who had concluded their labor contract more than 12 monthts
previously.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2001-2003/2003b/vol.47/lsl_enact.html
