Vol.34-No.09 September 1,1995
At the end of June, the Ministry of Labour published the final results of its survey on the outcome of 1995 spring wage negotiations agreed upon at 282 major private firms with 1,000 and more employees. With this, all the wage-hike results including those complied by Nikkeiren (The Japan Federation of Employers' Associations) and Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) were made public. The firms surveyed are listed on the first section of stock exchanges and are capitalized at over 2 billion yen. According to the survey results, the weighted average wage hike agreed upon was 8,376, yen or 2.83 percent, down742, yen or 0.30 point from the year before. It is fair to say that reflecting the faltering economy and stable prices, the low wage-increase demand of 15,471, yen down 1,253 yen from the previous year, symbolized this year's shunto. By industry, the highest wage increase was registered in construction with 13,140, yen followed by newspapers and printing, wholesale and retail trade, land transport and broadcasting and telecommuni-cations. In contrast, the lowest wage raise was posted in the steel industry of 3,771, yen followed by rubber products, textiles, nonferrous metals and electricity.Nikkeiren, meanwhile, compiled the final results of wage hike talks settled upon at 311 major firms. Labor and management agreed on a weighted average wage increase of 8,245, yen or 2.80 percent, down 642, yen or 0.3 point over a year earlier. By sector, newspapers, oil and commercial broadcasting alone won a pay raise of over 10,000, yen while all the remaining sectors agreed upon a wage hike of less than 10,000. yen
The results of Rengo's survey covering 1,412 affiliated labor unions were released in three different systems: one, the "individual system" under which a wage increase is represented by way of wages for a model worker at a certain age; two, the "average system" which adopts the average wage obtained from wages for all workers; and three, a combination of the two systems.
Rengo devised this new system as a last resort, considering that an increasing number of labor unions, major ones in particular, have adopted the first "individual system" in recent years. Viewed by the average wage system, labor accepted a weighted average wage hike of 8,121, yen or 2.86 percent, down 730, yen or 0.34 point from last year's level. Labor unions of the public-interest industries such as Zendentsu (Japan Telecommunications workers' Union), Shitetsu-soren (General Federation of Private Railway Workers' Unions of Japan), and Denryoku-soren (Confederation of Electric Power-related Industry Workers' Unions of Japan), all abandoned their usual strike option during wage talks to give top priority to recovery and relief operations in the areas ravaged by the January 17 Great Hanshin Earthquake, indicating that the quake cast a dark shadow over this year's shunto.
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