The Japan Labor Flash No.58
Email Journal April 3, 2006
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
TANKAN
Current Topics
2006 Spring Joint Wage Negotiations (Shunto) Struggle Passes its
Peak
Public Policies
Survey Monitoring Female Workers Who Continue to Work after Marriage
or Child-Birth
City of Miyoshi, Hiroshima, Obligates Employees to Take Parenting
Leave for 2 Months
News Clippings
Manufacturing Firms Tackle Measures to Pass on Technologies
Sharp Corp. Promises to Rehire Ex-Employees Who Left the Company
for Child-Rearing
Special Issue
The Labour Lawyers Association of Japan Issues a Statement on
the Debate over Revision of the Working Hours Law
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200604/index.htm
-TANKAN-
Short-term Economic Survey of Entereprises in Japan
-April 3, Monday, released by the Bank of Japan
http://www.boj.or.jp/en/type/stat/boj_stat/tk/yoshi/tk0603.htm
Current Topics
-2006 Spring Joint Wage Negotiations (Shunto) Struggle Passes its
Peak-
This year's shunto wage struggle has shifted to negotiations among
small and medium-sized enterprises and their unions, leading companies
having already responded to their labor unions by March 15, the deadline
specified by the unions.
The price setters, major automakers, electric and electronics companies
responded favorably to demands from their unions for increases in basic
monthly pay for the first time in five years, giving the impression
that companies have changed their stance on curbing pay hikes, and
indicating a noticeable change from negotiations in the past several
years. However, iron and steelmakers did not reply to demands from
their unions, calling instead for further talks, while shipbuilders
and heavy machinery makers refused demands for pay hikes from their
unions. The amount of pay hikes won, though varying among firms within
the same industries, was 500 - 600 yen in most cases.
This year Toyota Motor Corp., having made profits in excess of one
trillion yen, agreed to the 1000 yen raise demanded by its union,
although it had said that the increase in profits would be reflected
in bonus payments, rather than basic monthly pay. This move, which
seemed at first to encourage an atmosphere favorable to pay hikes
in negotiations in other companies, eventually served at the same
time as a ceiling to achievable pay hikes.
With the economy picking up and corporate performances substantially
improved, it was believed that unions would have the perfect chance
to achieve pay hikes. Nevertheless, the overall corporate response
turned out to be tougher than the unions initially expected. The
agreed level of pay at large firms seems to have had only a limited
impact on small and medium-sized enterprises which, it had been hoped,
would rectify wage gaps between regular and non-regular employees.
Overall, this year's negotiations featured a widened disparity
in wage hikes even among leading electric and electronics companies,
and slight signs that some firms were responding to demands from their
unions concerning child- and family-care measures. Traditionally,
spring wage negotiations have aimed at realizing pay hikes far in
excess of the business performance of individual firms, but the signs
of a decline in this attitude are becoming increasingly obvious.
US$=\118 (April 3, 2006）
Public Policies
-Survey Monitoring Female Workers Who Continue to Work after Marriage
or Child-Birth-
In March, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published
the findings of its third-round continuous Monitoring Survey on Adults
in the 21st Century (focused on the livelihoods of Japanese citizens).
The survey was addressed to 20,336 persons aged 20 - 34 at the end
of October 2002. The latest survey shows that 57.4 percent and 42.0
percent of females surveyed have continued working as regular and
non-regular workers, respectively, after marriage. Among females
surveyed who were unmarried in the first-round survey but got married
in the past two years, 54.0 percent continued the same work as before
their marriage, the rate being higher among the higher age group.
The proportions of married couples who have had a baby in the
previous one year are 14.3 percent in cases where a child-care leave
scheme is available, and a mere 5.2 percent in cases where such a
scheme is unavailable for wives. On the other hand, the proportions
of wives who had a job, gave birth in the past two years, and then
went back to work at the same place, were 74.0 percent if their jobs
were regular, and 34.5 percent if their jobs were non-regular.
-City of Miyoshi, Hiroshima, Obligates Employees to Take Parenting
Leave for 2 Months-
Kyodo News reports that the city of Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture,
has decided to make it compulsory for all employees with children
aged up to 18 months to take paid parenting leave for a maximum of
two months. The new scheme, officials say, is aimed at creating an
environment which makes it easier for parents of either gender to
take the leave. The new leave will be established separately from
the existing child-birth leave and child-care leave (available for
a maximum of three years), and can be taken for four weeks at a time
and twice in total. The city will hire temporary workers in place
of those who are taking the leave. "This is quite a unique scheme.
We hope that male workers will become more committed to parental care,"
say the officials.
News Clippings
-Manufacturing Firms Tackle Measures to Pass on Technologies-
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., aiming at boosting the
competitiveness of its manufacturing setup, is to establish an
innovation and promotion office for manufacturing under the direct
control of the president. The office will examine the causes of
the weakening of the manufacturing base and specific measures to
pass on skills and technologies, with an eye to the "Year 2007 Problem."
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is to establish an in-house
manufacturing "college" to nurture experts in production technologies
and quality control. The company will disengage 50 or so engineering
employees every year from their ordinary work and send them to a boarding
"college." This training program is aimed at employees who graduated
from university or technical colleges and have worked for the company
for two to three years. It will have 20 to 30 employees attend the
program in the first fiscal year, and increase the number to 50 or
so from the next fiscal year on.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, March)
-Sharp Corp. Promises to Rehire Ex-Employees Who Left the Company
for Child-Rearing-
"We promise to hire you again, if you so wish, after you have
finished the first stage of child-rearing." Sharp Corp. announced
that
in April it will adopt a reemployment-guaranteed scheme for former
employees. Under the scheme, the company promises to hire all ex
-employees who left because of child-birth or child-rearing but wish
to return to the company. Eligible former employees will be rehired
within seven years of leaving the company. Although quite a few
companies have now launched various re-employment schemes for employees
who left because of child care responsibilities, this is the first
example of a promise to rehire all former employees if they so wish.
Sharp will also adopt a loan scheme whereby employees wishing to have
infertility treatment are eligible for a loan to a maximum of five
million yen at a low interest rate. It is quite rare for Japanese
firms in Japan to provide schemes related to such treatment.
This series of measures have been realized in conformity with the
labor-management agreement in this year's shunto negotiations, whereby
the company agreed to improve its schemes to facilitate a balance
between the claims of work and child-bearing and rearing. Through
these measures, Sharp aims to offer a better working environment for
employees who need to take care of children and contribute to halting
The drop in the birthrate.
(Asahi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, March)
Special Issue
-The Labour Lawyers Association of Japan Issues a Statement on the
Debate over Revision of the Working Hours Law-
In January, a group within the Labor Policy Council of the Ministry
of Health, Labour and Welfare, which is studying the future system of
working hours, published a report on revision of the Law on Working
Hours. In line with this, an intensive debate will be held within the
division of the council in charge of labor conditions.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.58/58_si.htm
