The Japan Labor Flash No.7
Email Journal January 15, 2004
JILPT Information
JILPT Foreign Researcher Invitation Program
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
Defeat of the National Railway Workers' Union's lawsuit finalized
as the Supreme Court issues a ruling on JR companies' nonemployment
case
Public Policies
An outline of the industrial court system drawn up: Labor and
management representatives to serve as industrial judges
News Clippings
Unpaid overtime work worth 5.3 billion yen ...etc
Special Issue
As the 2004 spring joint labor negotiations kick off, Labor unions'
membership rate drops below the 20% mark
[Greetings from JILPT President]
JILPT Information
1. Purpose
This program invites foreign researchers to Japan and provides
them with opportunities for conducting research on labor policy
and labor issues in Japan, with the ultimate goal of improving
the quality of labor policy research in Japan.
2. Programs
Program types:
1) Long-term invitation program: 1-12 months
2) Short-term invitation program: Less than 1 month
Expenses
Travel and living expenses will be covered.
Requirements:
1) Must conduct research on Japanese labor policies or other labor
issues.
2) Must submit a research report to the JILPT at the end of their
stay.
3) Must be affiliated with a labor research institute or university
(excluding graduate students)
4) Must possess adequate command of Japanese or English
5) Must conduct research and remain with the JILPT
6) Must be in good enough health to carry out and complete intended
studies
3. Application deadline
Applications are accepted annually. We are currently accepting
applications for 2004 (April 2004 to March 2005). If you would
like to apply for this year, please submit your application documents
by February 20, 2004.
For more details, please refer to:
Application Process for the Long-term Foreign Researcher Invitation
Program
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/longtermFRIP.pdf
Application Process for the Short-term Foreign Researcher Invitation
Program
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/shorttermFRIP.pdf
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/application_000.doc
※You can view PDF files with Acrobat Reader which's available at
no cost from Adobe's Web site.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports December 2003-
Features
21st Century Survey on New-Born Infant (Second round)
Basic Survey on Labor Unions (2003) …etc
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2003/e2003-12.htm
Current Topics
-Defeat of the National Railway Workers' Union's lawsuit finalized
as the Supreme Court issues a ruling on JR companies' nonemployment
case-
After the former Japan National Railways was split up and privatized
in 1987, the newly formed JR companies refused to employ members of
the former company's labor unions. A lawsuit was subsequently filed,
and in December 2003, the Supreme Court issued a ruling of the third
instance on said case.
The Supreme Court supported the first and second trials that
nullified the relief order issued by the Central Labor Committee
(which recognized said nonemployment as an unfair labor practice and
ordered the JR companies to hire former union members), and rejected
the appeal of the Central Labor Committee which objected to such support.
As the reason, the court stated that, as the "employer" of the
Labor
Union Law, JR is not held responsible for unfair labor practices.
Privatization of a giant state-owned enterprise drew strong public
interest at the time. Personnel treatment and re-hiring of employees
also became the focus of attention. The lawsuit, covering a 16-year
period, demanded that JR withdraw its policy of "employment
discrimination" and re-employ former union members. The case finally
came to an end with the defeat of the National Railway Workers' Union.
Throughout this period, labor unions affiliated with the former
Japan National Railways underwent a series of realignments. Both labor
and management experienced substantial hardships and distress. Although
the long trial was resolved, it appears that the system of labor
committees itself has been put to the test.
Public Policies
-An outline of the industrial court system drawn up: Labor and
management representatives to serve as industrial judges-
In December 2003, the commission investigating labor issues
affiliated with the government's task force on judicial reform decided
to establish and introduce an "Industrial Court System" (provisional
name) and drew up an outline of the system. The aim is to resolve
individual labor disputes in a speedy, appropriate, and effective
manner.
Under the planned system, a trial can be held a maximum of three
times, in principle, and will be conducted by a total of three
individuals: one labor examiner-in-chief who is a judge, and two
industrial judges chosen from labor and management who have extensive
knowledge and experience of employment and labor-management relations.
Proceedings can be carried out regardless of the intentions of the
other party, with a majority opinion required to reach a decision.
If no objections are filed within two weeks of the verdict, the
trial is finalized, and arbitration is complete. This arbitration
has the same validity as a court settlement. Under this system,
if there are objections, the case is brought to court. The system
is planned to be launched next year.
News Clippings
-Unpaid overtime work worth 5.3 billion yen-
Chubu Electric Power (Head Office: Nagoya) announced that it had
paid a total of 5.36 billion yen to 11,950 people, or 64% of its total
employees, to cover unpaid overtime work done between April 2001 and
December 2002. The amount corresponds to an average of 448,000 yen
per person.
If payments made in September 2003 to some of the employees are
included, the company will have paid a total of 6.52 billion yen to
a total of 19,850 employees. This greatly surpassed the past record
of 3.5 billion yen which Takefuji, a consumer loan company, had paid
to approximately 5,000 of its employees. (See JIL Vol. 48)
1US$=\106 (February 2004)
(Asahi Shimbun, December)
-Childcare/maternity leave progressing ahead of the planned revision
of the law-
A growing number of companies are enhancing their childcare/maternity
leave programs. The Child and Family Care Leave Law is slated to be
revised in 2004. Many companies are taking steps ahead of the planned
legislative change to reexamine their programs in the hope of securing
top quality personnel.
Asahi Chemical Industry extended the eligibility for taking shorter
work hours for childcare, from the existing "until a child reaches
age three" to "until a child starts elementary school." Over
the one
year since December 2002, about 120 of its employees took childcare
/maternity leave, with 99% of the employees who gave birth opting for
it.
Mazda Motor has established a system that allows employees to take
paid leave for 10 days per year, at 70% of their usual salary, for
childcare and/or nursing care purposes. This is in addition to normal
paid leave. The company previously introduced other programs, such
as extending in 2002 the eligibility for taking shorter work hours
to "until a child completes his or her second year in elementary
school," and setting up an in-house childcare facility.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, December)
-Toyota abolishes "age-linked wages" and establishes "proficiency
-linked wages" and "post/assignment-linked wages"-
Beginning in April 2004, Toyota Motor will introduce a new wage
system. It will abolish "age-linked wages" of skilled workers
employed
in factories, and instead, establish "proficiency-linked wages"
and
"post/assignment-linked wages" that reflect an employee's
experience
and the content of his or her work. A skilled worker's age-related
wages account for about 20% of standard wages. Since 1999, Toyota
has been progressively abolishing age-linked wages, beginning with
the clerical and technical staff. With the introduction of this new
system, age-linked wages will be completely abolished.
By fall, the company plans to introduce a retirement allowance
program that follows a points system based on an employee's pre
-retirement qualifications and post. As a result, the wage system
will de-emphasize elements of seniority and focus more on experience
and accomplishments.
Toyota's abolishment of age-linked wages will most likely accelerate
the shift to merit-based wage systems in industry as a whole.
(Asahi Shimbun and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, December)
Special Issue
-As the 2004 spring joint labor negotiations kick off, Labor unions'
membership rate drops below the 20% mark-
As we have reported many times in our past issues, Japanese labor
unions are unable to halt their declining rate of membership. Last
yearend, they announced that the rate had dropped below the 20% mark
for the first time, or 19.6%. What crossed the minds of most labor
personnel was that a dreaded milestone on a downward-leading road has
been reached.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2004/no.7/sjln2004.html
Greetings from JILPT
Dear Friends,
Last year, JIL was reorganized as an entity for carrying out both
research and programs that link research with training, and which
would contribute even more effectively to labor policies. We made a
fresh start as JILPT, an independent administrative institution.
Japan is presently implementing a series of structural reforms.
The underlying notion is the recognition that unless various systems
that were set up after WWII are upgraded to better versions, our
country will sooner or later arrive at a dead end in its development.
A number of attempts that follow this trend have already been made in
the labor sector as well, many of which we have covered in our past
issues.
While many improvements have been made, new and serious challenges
have also emerged, including an increase in long working hours and
loss of job security.
Needless to say, Japan is not the only country that faces endless
challenges to eliminate working people's fears and anxieties, including
the need to ensure full employment and job security.
As in the past, even greater ingenuity and efforts are required in 2004
to solve these and other labor problems.
With the continued support of readers such as yourself, we at the
newly created JILPT hope to move forward one step at a time.
We encourage all of you to study and think with us.
On behalf of everyone at JILPT, I wish you a happy, healthy, and
productive year.
Dr. Akira Ono, President of JILPT
