The Japan Labor Flash No.79
Email Journal March 1, 2007

JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
Wage Gap Widens among Regions: Wages Highest in Tokyo and Lowest
in Aomori
Only 1.5% Take Family-Care Leave; One in Four Quit or Switch Jobs
for Sake of Family Care
Public Policies
Government to Submit Bill on Increase in Overtime Premium Rates to Diet
Bills on Revised Part-Time Work Law, Employment Insurance Law and
Employment Measure Law to be Submitted to Diet
News Clippings
Users of Child- and Family-Care Systems Face Less Resistance
In-house Exchange Information Activities on Balancing Work and
Family Life Heats Up
Special Issue
Supreme Court Invalidates Individual Agreement "Not to Withdraw
from a Union" Under a Union Shop Agreement

JILPT Information

The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire

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Statistical Reports

-Main Labor Economic Indicators-

http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200703/index.htm

Current Topics

-Wage Gap Widens among Regions: Wages Highest in Tokyo and Lowest
in Aomori-

In February, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published
the provisional findings, by prefecture, of the 2006 Basic Survey on
the Wage Structure. According to the findings, the highest scheduled
monthly earnings as of June 2006 were in Tokyo, at 375,000 yen (average
age 40.2 with 12.1 years of service), and the lowest in Aomori Prefecture,
at 221,700 yen (average age 41.6 with 11.6 years of service). The figure
for Tokyo was higher by 4,900 yen from the previous year, while the
figure for Aomori was lower by 1,100 yen from the previous year. Average
monthly earnings, while increasing in 24 prefectures, mainly large
metropolitan areas, fell in 23 prefectures including Aomori, Okinawa
and Iwate, indicating a widening wage gap among regions.

The survey looked at wages paid in June 2006 at approximately 45,000
firms across the country with 10 or more employees.

US$=118yen （March 1, 2007)


-Only 1.5% Take Family-Care Leave; One in Four Quit or Switch Jobs
for Sake of Family Care-

The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training recently published
the "Research Report on the Use of Family-care Leave Systems." In February
and March 2006 a survey was carried out on this topic, according to
which only 1.5 percent of workers who needed to care for family members
living with them had taken family-care leave. Most employees made time
to care for family members by taking annual paid holidays, being absent
from work, turning up late to work or leaving work early. Some respondents
explained that even if they needed to take successive days off, in
practice there is no family-care leave system. Other reasons provided
were that the system is too complicated to understand or that taking
leave would result in a drop in income.

A majority of workers who had not taken family-care leave said that
they could manage their family care with the support of other family
members or third parties.

Of the respondents, 87.6% were currently employed at the time when
the necessity to take care of family members first arose, and 12.4%
were unemployed. Currently, of those who were then employed, 77.8%
retained the same jobs; 15.2% switched jobs and were employed; and 7%
quit their jobs and were unemployed. Workers who were involved in the
establishment of the family-care leave system in their own company,
and those who most needed successive days-off for family care either
quit or switched jobs. While many men in need of family-care leave
continued working, quite a few women quit or switched jobs. At the
same time, one out of four workers shortened or adjusted their working
hours once their family care situation was stable.

The survey, in the form of a questionnaire, was addressed to 1,111
males and females aged 30 - 59 who lived with family members who
needed care; 1,024 respondents completed the survey.

Public Policies
-Government to Submit Bill on Increase in Overtime Premium Rates to Diet-

As reported in previous issues of the Japan Labor Flash, the Government
has decided not to submit bills providing for a Japanese version of the
"white-collar exemption rules" - that is, a system excluding workers
satisfying certain conditions from coverage by the working hours
regulations. On February 6, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed the
Government to submit to the Diet a bill on increasing overtime premium
rates, which had been discussed together with the exemption rules.

With an urgent sense that something must be done to alter the trend
in overwork, the bill will make it mandatory for large firms to pay
50% of normal wages - rather than the current 25% - for overtime
exceeding 80 hours per month. Regarding the overtime rate for small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Government decided, in order
to avoid a sudden increase in their financial burden, to discuss the
pros and cons of the adoption of the new rules by SMEs in three years
time. The prime minister also stated that he had instructed the
Government to prepare for the submission of a total of six labor-related
bills, including the one related to overtime premium rates.


-Bills on Revised Part-Time Work Law, Employment Insurance Law and
Employment Measure Law to be Submitted to Diet-

At a cabinet meeting on February 9, the Government decided to submit
to the Diet a bill on the revision of the Employment Insurance Law; and
at another meeting on February 13, bills on revisions to the Employment
Measure Law, the Law Concerning the Promotion of Local Employment
Development, and the Part-Time Work Law.

As described in our preceding issue of the Japan Labor Flash, on
January 22, the Labour Policy Council returned those draft bills
"reasonable".

A revised Employment Measure Law will include regulations regarding
increasingly older freeters, whereby employers will be banned from
posing age limits on job openings (current regulations simply require
them to make efforts not to do so). At the same time, a revised Part
-Time Work Law will aim to eliminate the gap between part-time and
regular employees; it will clearly state that employers are responsible
for ensuring equal treatment of part-time and regular employees, thus
encouraging part-time workers to change their status to regular employees.

News Clippings
-Users of Child- and Family-Care Systems Face Less Resistance-

According to a survey conducted by the Japan Management Association
on the current state of and future tasks for the management of users
of child and family-care systems, 70 percent of supervisors had no
opposition to their subordinates using these systems. In their analysis,
the Association states that it has now become common for workers to
make use of such systems. However, 60 percent of respondents (managers)
replied that when workers use such systems it increases the workload
of other employees.

Questionnaire responses were returned by 528 managers who have
subordinates using the child-care or family-care system. Of these,
47 percent were section managers, 28 percent were department managers,
and 25 percent were board members.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, February)


-In-house Exchange Information Activities on Balancing Work and Family
Life Heats Up-

Among workers at NTT Data Corp., grass-roots workplace activities
focus on creating better "work-life balance".

The core of such activities is an in-house Social Networking Service
(SNS). One community exclusively for women in the SNS, which features
interviews with the first woman in the company to take child-care leave
and female managers who have children, tries various measures to share
information among women, who tend to be isolated in the workplace.
Advice and suggestions are also exchanged within the social network,
which has helped to forge a mechanism whereby, for example, employees'
suggestions for improving business, such as revisions to the shorter
working hours system, are passed on to the top management. With the
goals of realizing a workplace where individuals respect diverse
personalities and in consideration of creating a comfortable work
environment for disabled, foreign, and dispatched workers, NTT
employees have created various community groups to share common
professional categories such as sales and development, or interests
such as marriage, child-raising, family-care, etc. Male employees
are also welcome to join these groups.

These ideas have all arisen from the activities of the SNS; they are
so-called reforms based on a bottom-up approach. The SNS is a mechanism
by which in-house public opinion rises to the top, where management
is able to hear and consider it. It serves as a useful device for vertical
communication between top management and employees in the workplace.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, February)

Special Issue
-Supreme Court Invalidates Individual Agreement "Not to Withdraw
from a Union" Under a Union Shop Agreement-

According to Kyodo News, in the third case of appeal in which an
employee of Toshiba Corp. affiliated with a trade union outside the
company demanded that both the Toshiba Union, which concluded a union
shop agreement, and the company should accept his withdrawal from the
Toshiba Union, the Supreme Court on February 2 overturned the ruling
of the Tokyo High Court against the employee and approved his withdrawal.
The Supreme Court also ordered the company to halt dues check off,
and the union to refund approximately 250,000 yen of union dues already
paid.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.79/79_si.html