2002 Shunto Spring Labor Negotiations Begin

On January 11, the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) at its extraordinary general meeting adopted the Nikkeiren Position Paper 2002, which serves as a guideline for employers going into yearly Shunto labor negotiations. Similarly, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo)-taking its cue from an enlarged tactical meeting held on January 9-held a Central Struggle Committee meeting on the same day (January 11) and set aside the third week in March for intensive talks with employers. The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) also put together a unified guideline demanding a monthly wage increase of 15,000 yen, a minimum hourly wage of 1,000 yen for part-time workers, and minimum wage levels of 1,000 yen per hour, 7,400 yen per day, and 150,000 yen per month for ordinary workers. Zenroren also set aside the day following employer responses to its demands (scheduled for mid-March) for "coordinated national action." As these examples show, programs leading up to the 2002 Shunto negotiations are already well under way.

Nikkeiren stated that employment security is the most important issue in negotiations between labor and management and maintained that total wage payments should be kept in check to realize this goal. According to Nikkeiren, "Increases in basic salaries are out of the question, and automatic wage increases linked to employee age and work history should also be reassessed." Rengo for the first time decided not to adopt uniform basic salary increase demands, instead leaving decisions on whether to make such demands up to individual trade unions. Rengo has positioned the forthcoming Shunto negotiations as an "employment Shunto," and is resolved on its part to reach some form of agreement on ensuring employment security.

Because of the lingering recession and the resulting large-scale restructuring measures taken by the large corporations, actually, there is practically no basic salary increase. The focus instead will be on maintenance of regular salary increases, the signing of a unified employment agreement, and introduction of work sharing arrangements.

1US$≒\133 (January 2002)