The Japan Labor Flash No.69
Email Journal September 15, 2006
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Report
Current Topics
2006 Spring Wage Negotiations at Leading Private Firms: An Average
Increase of 5,661 yen or 1.79%
Jichiro Committing Itself to Reform of Civil Service to Grant Basic
Labor Rights to Civil Servants
Public Policies
Request for Allocation from General Account for Measures to Deal
with Drop in Birthrate and NEETs
MHLW Selects Business Establishments Successful in Hiring Disabled
Workers in FY 2006
News Clippings
30,000 Stay-at-Home Posts to be Created at Leading IT Firms
55% of SMEs in Aichi Prefecture Say They Cannot Guarantee Employment
of Elderly Persons
Special Issue
New Trends Recently Observed
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports-
Features
Survey on Employment Trends (2005)
Survey on Employment Conditions of Young Workers at Firms (2005)
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2006/e2006-08.htm
Current Topics
-2006 Spring Wage Negotiations at Leading Private Firms: An Average
Increase of 5,661 yen or 1.79%-
On August 21, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published
a status of the demands and results of the 2006 spring wage negotiations
at leading private firms. Of the targeted firms with capital of one
billion or more, 1,000 or more employees, and a labor union, the
(weighted) average pay hike, including increases in periodical pay
hikes, among 288 unions which received responses from the companies
and whose pay hikes are found in the survey was 5,661 yen, an increase
of 1.79 percent. The figure was higher by 0.08 percentage points, 239
yen, than the results obtained last year.
Most unions submitted their demands to the companies in mid- to
late February, and most unions and companies saw agreements in mid- to
late March: 86.4 percent of the firms surveyed had reached agreements
by late March. The results of 2006 spring wage negotiations, shown
in a questionnaire survey conducted by Nippon Keidanren (the Japan
Business Federation), show that the proportion of firms which will
raise only the amount of the periodical pay hikes has decreased, while
the proportion of those which will increase wages, including basic
payments, has increased.
US$=117yen (September 15, 2006)
-Jichiro Committing Itself to Reform of Civil Service to Grant Basic
Labor Rights to Civil Servants-
In Japan, quite a few major labor unions hold their annual conferences
during the summer and autumn. On August 24 and 25, Jichiro - the All
-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union, the biggest affiliate
of Rengo comprised of local civil servants and other workers in the
public sector (936,000 members) - held its 78th National Congress in
Saitama City, at which it decided on action plans for the near future.
At the Congress, Jichiro made tentative comments on its activities,
while confirming action plans related to reforming the civil servant
system with an eye to recovering the basic labor rights of government
workers, and to the Upper House election to be held next year, in which
Jichiro will for the first time support a temporary staff member as an
official candidate from the Democratic Party of Japan.
Public Policies
-Request for Allocation from General Account for Measures to Deal with
Drop in Birthrate and NEETs-
The fiscal 2007 general account budget is expected to total 82.73
trillion yen, an increase of approximately 3.04 trillion yen from the
initial budget for the current fiscal year.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare requested a total of
21.6062 trillion yen (an increase of 3.2 percent from the current
fiscal year). It is planning to earmark 1.4050 trillion yen (an
increase of 7.3 percent) for measures to counter the decline in the
birthrate, of which 2.2 billion yen will be directed to "Mothers'
Helloworks," job centers for women who wish to work but who have
to
take care of children. The Ministry also plans to launch various other
measures, including expanding opportunities for non-regular workers to
become regular employees (1.2 billion yen); assisting "freeters"
with
their age 25 and over to get regular jobs (2.6 billion yen); expanding
a system for training human resources in practical skills (3.8 million
yen); and promoting job creation and other measures in regions where
signs of employment recovery are feeble (1.7 million yen).
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
on the other hand, demanded approximately 470 million yen for the
expense of measures against ill-considered early retirement of young
workers and NEETs. The National Personnel Authority demanded a total
of 10.069 billion yen (a decrease of 0.1 percent from the initial
budget for the current fiscal year) for the mainstay of its measures,
the creation of job vacancies in the civil service especially designed
for "freeters", etc.
In order to help enterprises assist employees who need to take care
of children, the Cabinet Office will reportedly discuss with the Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry a possible reduction in corporate taxes
for firms needing to hire substitute workers for those who take child
-care leave.
-MHLW Selects Business Establishments Successful in Hiring Disabled
Workers in FY 2006-
On August 29, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published
a list of business establishments which have an outstanding record for
hiring workers with disabilities (20 establishments) and of excellent
workers with disabilities (31 persons) in fiscal year 2006. The highest
award in the category of "good examples of improvement in hiring
and
providing a workplace for disabled workers" was given to Staff Service
Business Support Co., Ltd. in Kanagawa prefecture, on the grounds that
the company had improved its assistance scheme, on both the hardware
and software sides, for workers with impaired internal organs, and
provided fully-enforced specialized health management using medical
staff.
News Clippings
-30,000 Stay-at-Home Posts to be Created at Leading IT Firms-
NEC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Japan Development Company, LP and two
other leading IT companies are to adopt a full-fledged stay-at-home
employment scheme. Not confined to female workers who need to take
care of children, the scheme will be open to all workers in system
-related departments or to employees as a whole. These IT firms,
faced with an increasingly serious shortage of engineers due to
expanded corporate investment in informatization, wish to secure
human resources by offering a variety of working options.
This series of measures will mean that half the employees,
approximately 30,000, of the five leading IT companies in Japan -
the above mentioned four companies and IBM Japan, which has already
adopted a similar scheme - will be able to work for their companies
while staying at home; this is likely to have a definite impact on
other industries. Under the scheme, firms will lend personal computers
to employees working at home, who will participate in system development
and other tasks in collaboration with their colleagues at the office,
using broadband internet access. Users of the new employment scheme
will not need to commute and will be free, in principle, to decide
their own working hours. Now that people, particularly young workers,
have an increasing preference for working without being bound by time
and place, the stay-at-home work scheme will serve for firms as a means
to hold on to able workers.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, August)
-55% of SMEs in Aichi Prefecture Say They Cannot Guarantee Employment
of Elderly Persons-
A questionnaire survey on employment of elderly workers conducted
by the Aichi Association of Small and Medium Business Entrepreneurs
shows that only 45 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises in
Aichi prefecture have adopted measures, such as extension of the
mandatory retirement age, to enable the employment of elderly workers.
A majority, 55 percent, of the firms surveyed replied that they were
not tackling the issue of employment for the elderly.
In April, the revised Act on Stabilization of Employment of Older
Persons (the mandatory retirement age law) went into effect, requiring
firms to gradually raise the mandatory retirement age of their employees
to 65. In line with this, the Aichi Association of Small and Medium
Business Entrepreneurs asked its member companies whether they could
comply with the revised law, and received responses from 365 companies.
Of those which responded that they could comply, nearly half, 48
percent, said that they had extended the employment term of elderly
employees without changing the mandatory retirement age. On the other
hand, 35 percent responded that they had abolished the mandatory
retirement age, or that they did not have a mandatory retirement age
from the beginning.
Asked about possible future measures, 52 percent of the firms which
stated that they were currently taking no measures replied that they
had no plan to do so, thus highlighting the low awareness about
employment of the elderly among entrepreneurs of small and medium
-sized enterprises.
(Yomiuri Shimbun, August)
Special Issue
-New Trends Recently Observed-
It has been a long time since the mass labor-shedding of middle-aged
or elderly workers and the cessation of basic pay hikes customarily
carried out every year, together with the difficulties of young workers
in getting jobs, began to make the headlines. Now, however, things seem
to be changing.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.69/69_si.html
