The Japan Labor Flash No.55
Email Journal February 15, 2006
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
44,000 Aeon Part-Timers to Join Labor Union, Accounting for 80% of
Membership
Shuffling and Amalgamations Accelerate among Industry Unions
Public Policies
Ratio of Active Job-openings-to-Applicants Surpasses 1:1 after
13 Year Hiatus
Number of Regular Employees Increases for the First Time in Eight
Years
News Clippings
NS Solutions Co. Totally Bans Late-Night Overtime and Holiday Work
NTT to Complete Revisions to Wage System - Total Abolishment of
Regular Pay Hike for General Employees
Special Issue
Changing Japan
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Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports January 2006-
Features
Awareness Survey on Livelihood
Survey on Wage Increase (2005)
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2006/e2006-01.htm
Current Topics
-44,000 Aeon Part-Timers to Join Labor Union, Accounting for 80% of
Membership-
Aeon Labor Union, the company-based union of the largest supermarket
chain, Aeon, has announced a new policy on union members. By the
coming summer, union membership eligibility will be expanded to
include approximately 44,000 part-time employees with monthly working
hours of less than 120 hours. If this becomes a reality, such part-time
employees, together with another type of part-time employees whose
monthly working hours exceed 120 hours and who are already members of
the union, are expected to account for 80 percent of total membership,
and the unionization rate will increase from the current 25 percent to
60 percent.
-Shuffling and Amalgamations Accelerate among Industry Unions-
On January 1, 2006, Jichiro (All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal
Workers Union; membership approximately 980,000), the largest civil
servant union, and Zenkoku Ippan (National Union of General Workers;
membership approximately 36,000), both affiliated to Rengo, amalgamated.
The former will continue under the same name, and the amalgamated
organization will set up a new internal organ, General Workers Council
(provisional name), to take over the activities and functions of the
former Zenkoku Ippan. Preceding this, on December 19, 2005, the Council
held a general congress to declare its establishment in Tokyo, and
the presidents of Jichiro and Zenkoku Ippan spoke of their aspirations
at a press conference.
In the meantime, UI Zensen Domei (Japanese Federation of Textile,
Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers' Unions;
membership approximately 980,000), the biggest private industry union
and the Japan Federation of Service and Distributive Workers Unions
(JSD; membership approximately 200,000). Both Rengo affiliates, are
actively discussing specific issues with an eye to an amalgamation
scheduled in 2007.
Public Policies
-Ratio of Active Job-openings-to-Applicants Surpasses 1:1 after 13
Year Hiatus-
On January 31, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced
the Report on Employment Service in December 2005. According to this,
the active job-openings-to-aplicants ratio (seasonally adjusted) in
December improved from the previous month by 0.01 point to 1.00,
passing the 1.00-point mark for the first time in 13 years and 3
months, that is, since September 1992. By prefecture, Aichi Prefecture
recorded the highest ratio of 1.61 and Okinawa Prefecture the lowest
of 0.41, demonstrating the outstanding disparity among regions.
The annual average ratio of active job-openings-to-applicants for
2005 stood at 0.95, an increase of 0.12 points from the previous year.
At a press interview held on January 31, Minister of Health, Labour
and Welfare Jiro Kawasaki announced a policy for intensive employment
measures in seven prefectures with weak employment ratios: Hokkaido,
Aomori, Akita, Kochi, Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa.
-Number of Regular Employees Increases for the First Time in Eight
Years-
According to the results (provisional report) of the Monthly Labor
Survey published on February 1 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare, the annual average number of regular employees for 2005
increased by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, marking
the second consecutive year of increase. Of these, the number of
general employees and part-time employees increased by 0.5 and 0.6
percentage points, respectively. The former increased for the first
time in eight years. The average monthly total cash earnings per
regular employee in 2005 (in business establishments with five or
more regular employees) registered an increase - the first time in
five years - by 0.6 percentage points to 334,886 yen.
US$=\117 (February 15, 2006）
News Clippings
-NS Solutions Co. Totally Bans Late-Night Overtime and Holiday Work-
NS Solutions Corporation, an affiliate to the Nippon Steel group,
has decided on a total ban on late-night overtime and holiday work.
Among other things, the measure aims at improving efficiency and
morale among employees by decisively restricting long working hours.
The total ban is the first by a leading company in the IT industry.
The company is expecting a long-term improvement in profitability
and growth rate, although in initial, temporary drop in competitiveness
is expected.
The measure applies to the total 2,100 employees in managerial
posts and general employees, with the exception of those such as
persons in charge of system inspection who are unavoidably required
to work late at night and on holidays. Employees subject to the new
measure are now required to obtain permission in advance from their
superiors if they cannot avoid working after ten o'clock or on
holiday due to, for example, replacement of a system at a client
company.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, January)
-NTT to Complete Revisions to Wage System - Total Abolishment of
Regular Pay Hike for General Employees-
NTT's president Norio Wada announced at a press conference that
the company will abolish the seniority-based wage payment scheme for
general employees in all their group companies in April 2006.
This will complete the series of NTT steps to abolish all elements
of regular pay hikes in its wage system.
In line with the drop in birthrate, the company will eliminate the
upper limit on payment of dependents allowance to employees with spouse
or children, which will be replaced by an allowance that will be added
to monthly salaries in accordance with the number of children. No limit
will be placed on the number of children.
Currently, in the basic pay of the company for a standard employee
aged 40, qualification payments account for 50 percent; seniority
-based payments for 30 percent; performance-based premiums reflecting
overall past evaluation for 15 percent; and performance payment which
fluctuates in accordance with assessment year by yesr for five percent.
Under the newly revised scheme with no seniority-based payments, the
qualification payments will account for 55 percent; performance-based
premiums for 25 percent; and performance payment for 20 percent.
President Wada said that the step would be the last in a series of
revisions of the wage system that were initiated back in 1985 when
the company was privatized.
(Asahi Shimbun, Kyodo, January)
Special Issue
-Changing Japan-
It has often been said that Japanese people are diligent and skilful
with their hands. It was often the case in the past that Japanese
competitors won many gold medals at the World Skills Competition,
a technical version of the Olympic Games. And it was not particularly
surprising for ordinary Japanese to see some Japanese firms, profiting
from the natural skills of the nation, climbing the ladder of success
as top world brands in the fields of automobile, camera and other
manufacturing sectors.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.55/55_si.html
