The Japan Labor Flash No.72
Email Journal November 1, 2006
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Proportion of Households with No Savings Declines Slightly
Denki Rengo Decides on New Wage Demand System by Occupation
Public Policies
Some 23.3 Billion yen Unpaid Overtime Paid in Fiscal Year 2005 as
Directed by LSIOs
Government Accepts NPA Recommendation on Salaries of National Civil
Servants for Fiscal Year 2006
News Clippings
Corporate Efforts to Hire Workers with Disabilities
Adoption of "Telework" Seen at Softbank
Special Issue
Workers' Feelings on Efforts to Balance Work and Child-Rearing
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200611/index.htm
Current Topics
-Proportion of Households with No Savings Declines Slightly-
In October, the Central Council for Financial Services Information
(of which the Bank of Japan serves as the secretariat) published
the findings of a 2006 Public Opinion Survey on Household Financial
Assets and Liabilities. This survey shows that financial assets per
household average 10.73 million yen, while the median value - an
indicator providing a general picture of household budgets - stands
at 4.2 million yen. The proportion of households having neither
savings nor deposits is 22.9 percent, a slight decline from the
previous year, when the proportion was 23.8 percent. The proportion
of single-person households with no savings or deposits is 32.3
percent, a decline from the previous year's 41.1 percent. By financial
products, postal savings and other savings and deposits account for
the highest proportion, over 50 percent, while the proportion of
shares and investment trust funds has increased over the previous
year and the year before.
In the meantime, some 40 percent of the households surveyed are
in debt, the average amount being 5.36 million yen, another drop
from the previous year.
US$=116yen (November 1, 2006)
-Denki Rengo Decides on New Wage Demand System by Occupation-
At a conference of representatives on September 29, Denki Rengo
(the Japanese Electrical Electronic and Information Union) decided
on specific policies regarding its system of pay-hike demands by
occupation (for the decision-making process on the shift to this
system, see Current Topics, JLF No. 66, August 1, 2006). It was
confirmed at the conference that under the new wage demand system
a "worker of around 30 engaged in development and design" and
a "worker of around 35 engaged in product assembly" would be
regarded as engineering workers and skilled manual workers,
respectively; therefore, unions would call for specific wages
(basic payments) for "Grade 4" workers, under the criteria of
skills
and abilities, which would be newly established for the two types
of occupations.
This is the first attempt for an industrial union to present any
kind of criteria on wage demands which take into account the skills
and abilities of workers. Denki Rengo is currently calling on employers
to understand this new wage demand system, and on individual workplaces
to discuss the system. The system, it says, will be adopted gradually
from next spring by the unions which have satisfied the necessary
conditions.
(See JLF No. 66 Current Topics at
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/emm/2005/66.htm)
Public Policies
-Some 23.3 Billion yen Unpaid Overtime Paid in Fiscal Year 2005 as
Directed by LSIOs -
In October, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare compiled
the results of advice and instructions regarding unpaid overtime
given in fiscal year 2005 by Labor Standards Inspection Offices
across the country. Overtime premiums paid in response to instructions
by the Offices totaled 23.295 billion yen (the sum of cases where
firms paid 1 million yen or more). The number of firms and workers
involved in the late payment of unpaid overtime were 1,524 firms and
167,958 workers, respectively. Of these, firms which paid 10 million
yen or more totaled 293, while the largest payment for unpaid overtime
made by a single firm was 2.297 billion yen (a manufacturing company).
-Government Accepts NPA Recommendation on Salaries of National Civil
Servants for Fiscal Year 2006-
In mid-October, the Government decided to accept the recommendation
of the National Personnel Authority (NPA) that monthly salaries and
bonus payments for national civil servants for fiscal year 2006 should
remain the same as the previous fiscal year. This was the first time
in two years that the level of monthly salaries and bonuses remained
unchanged.
In response to the public view that salaries of government officials
were excessively high, the NPA, for the first time in 42 years, revised
the size criteria to be used in calculating recommended salary levels
from the traditional "companies with 100 or more employees"
to "those
with 50 or more," taking into account small firms where workers are
paid relatively low wages. If the traditional criteria had been used,
the salaries and bonus payments recommended by the NPA would have been
greater than the actual level in the previous fiscal year because of
the current trend in business recovery. The Ministry of Finance estimates
that full implementation of the recommendation will reduce the burden
on the national treasury by 94 billion yen.
News Clippings
-Corporate Efforts to Hire Workers with Disabilities-
With companies paying greater attention to their social responsibilities,
an increasing number of firms are making efforts to hire workers with
disabilities. How do companies improve the working environment for
their employees? What kind of strategies are they using to produce
able workers?
Staff Service Business Support Co., Ltd. employs about 300 disabled
workers, of whom about 190 suffer from renal function impairment.
Accordingly, the company has adopted a unique health management
system, whereby the medical condition of employees with disabilities
is recorded in a database. Nurses monitor the system in which employees
with disabilities record their own blood pressure and other health
conditions, and provide recommendations to advisors on whether, for
example, their working hours should be revised.
The "Yume (dream) Farm" managed by Pasona Heartful Co. employs
people
with intellectual disabilities who have difficulty engaging in desk
work for long hours. Their main assignments are weeding and other farm
work, as well as assisting with office work such as shipping procedures.
This is a new effort to take advantage of opportunities in agricultural
work for workers with disabilities. The farm sees this effort not just
as a way to create new jobs for the disabled but also as a profitable
future business prospect. The employment of workers with disabilities
may pave the way for new business opportunities.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, October)
-Adoption of "Telework" Seen at Softbank-
Softbank Telecom Corp. is now promoting "telework" to provide
a flexible
and efficient working environment for its employees. The company launched
the telework scheme in 2005 for all employees, an increasing number of
whom seem to be taking advantage of it in order to have time for child
-rearing.
The company, which set office hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., during
which employees on telework must stay in their offices, allows them
to spend time on child- or family-care by managing their working hours
flexibly before and after these "core" hours. Now that one year
has
passed since adoption of the system, 44 percent of the 4,300 employees
told a survey that they had made use of the telework system.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, October)
Special Issue
-Workers' Feelings on Efforts to Balance Work and Child-Rearing-
In past issues, the Japan Labor Flash introduced the efforts of the
government, labor, and management to improve systems to help balance
work and child-rearing, as a step towards halting the drop in the
birthrate. It has also cited an increasing number of firms which have
launched or improved systems to help employees achieve a balance between
work and family life, and some firms, even, which have established
child-care leave systems for male workers. The results of a survey
carried out by the National Personnel Authority and published at the
end of September show that the proportion of firms with such systems
is 69.7 percent. Despite all this, the survey also reveals that while
87.3 percent of the firms surveyed said that they made efforts to make
the system widely known to employees, a mere 16.1 percent took steps
of one kind or another to encourage eligible workers to actually take
the leave, and only 14.7 percent set any numerical targets.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.72/72_si.html
