The Japan Labor Flash No.80
Email Journal March 15, 2007
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Statistical Reports
Recent Statistical Survey Reports
Current Topics
Six Rengo-Affiliated Industrial Unions Establish a "Joint Struggle
of
Like-Minded Bodies"
Tokyo District Court Orders Nissan Prince Chiba to Pay Compensation
to Sales Workers' Union
Public Policies
Contest for Employment Development for Senior Citizens Solicits
Participants
Council for the Promotion of Regulatory Reform Includes "Enabling
Workers to Use Child-Care Leave" as Priority Subject of Investigation
News Clippings
Workers Unite through Blog to Form Labor Union
Recruitment Activities in Popular Internet-Based Game
Special Issue
Difficult Working Conditions of Hospital Doctors
JILPT Information
The Japan Labor Flash Reader Questionnaire
Dear Readers,
We hereby send a questionnaire to you. We would like your comments
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questionnaire.
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https://inq18.smp.ne.jp/q/j9SkddI5EWEHI4EVBE/07jlf_quest
Statistical Reports
-Recent Statistical Survey Reports-
Features
Labor Force Survey (2006, Model-based estimated figure)
Labor Force Survey : Detailed Tabulation (Preliminary Report
for Oct.-Dec.)
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/esaikin/2007/e2007-02.htm
Current Topics
-Six Rengo-Affiliated Industrial Unions Establish a "Joint Struggle
of
Like-Minded Bodies"-
On February 21, 2007, six industrial unions, chiefly in domestic
demand-oriented industries affiliated with Rengo (the Japan Trade
Union Confederation) - UI Zensen Domei (the Japanese Federation
of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers'
Unions; membership 880,000); JAM (the Japanese Association of Metal,
Machinery, and Manufacturing Workers; membership 380,000); The Japan
Federation of Service and Distributive Workers Unions（JSD; membership
200,000）; JEC Rengo (the Japanese Federation of Energy and Chemistry
Workers Unions; membership 120,000); Food-Rengo (JFU, or the Federation
of All Japan Foods and Tobacco Workers' Unions, membership 100,000);
and the Japanese Federation of Pulp and Paper Workers' Unions
(membership 30,000) - established a "joint struggle of like-minded
bodies". As an alliance of industrial unions, they aim to obtain
better responses from employers in spring joint negotiations by
boosting the synergy through the cooperation of member industrial
unions which will serve as references in negotiations by small
and medium-sized unions. They will collect responses that some 50
single unions have received from employers in the spring struggles,
and release a summary of the responses between March 14 - 17, when
the negotiations of Rengo-affiliates reach their first peak, so as
to spread the effect of their achievements to subsequent negotiations
by small and medium-sized unions. The joint struggle of like-minded
bodies aims to incorporate more unions in order to increase the
effects of cooperation upon negotiations and responses.
-Tokyo District Court Orders Nissan Prince Chiba to Pay Compensation
to Sales Workers' Union-
According to Kyodo News, the Tokyo District Court on February 22
ruled on a case in which the All Nissan Sales Workers' Union (Tokyo,
membership approx. 45,000) demanded that Nissan Prince Chiba.Co. pay
it compensation of a total 5.5 million yen. The union claimed that
the withdrawal of an affiliate, the Nissan Prince Chiba Sales Workers'
Union (Chiba City, membership approx. 530), was attributable to
illegally inductive acts by the president and others of Nissan Prince
Chiba.
The Tokyo District Court ruled that the company acted illegally to
influence union members (by assuming their debt repayments, helping
them find lawyers in preparation for disputes, etc.), and judged that
the right of the plaintiff union to organize had been infringed,
ordering the company to pay 2.2 million yen.
US$=117yen (March 15, 2007)
Public Policies
-Contest for Employment Development for Senior Citizens Solicits
Participants-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Japan Organization
for Employment of the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities, and the
Association of Employment Development for Senior Citizens are soliciting
participation in a fiscal year 2007 contest for employment development
for senior citizens. The contest is aimed at firms which have shown
the greatest innovation in offering elderly persons opportunities to
work and those which have taken steps to enable workers to continue
working until they reach 70. The award ceremony will form part of an
"Elderly Employment Festival" (tentative title) scheduled to be
held
in October this year in Tokyo.
-Council for the Promotion of Regulatory Reform Includes "Enabling
Workers to Use Child-Care Leave" as Priority Subject of Investigation-
In the latter half of February, the Government Council for the
Promotion of Regulatory Reform held a meeting to discuss subjects
for future intensive investigation. Where employment and labor-related
issues are concerned, the Council cited seven issues for "immediate
investigation", including "establishment of a system where workers
can take short-term child-care leave several times during the period
in which they are so entitled, and take it more easily" and "revisions
to academic, age and other requirements concerning 'qualified' workers."
As for priority areas and tasks, the Council cited "revision of labor
-related legislation to make it possible to work in diversified ways,"
"revisions to the Worker Dispatch Law, and "investigation
of possible
reform of the system for stimulating the desire to find employment,
as well as the morale for those who fail to have chances to try"
among others.
News Clippings
-Workers Unite through Blog to Form Labor Union-
Communication via a blog on the Internet has led to the establishment
of the first union for menswear retailer Konaka Corp. Employees throughout
the country, while sharing with each other their dissatisfaction with
labor conditions, have joined together in a move to call on the company
to rectify those labor conditions.
Their action began about one year ago. Anonymous letters complaining
about long working hours in Konaka Corp. flooded into a non-profit
organization, the Labor Consultation Center (Tokyo), which called,
via its weblog, employees and their relatives to provide specific
cases. This evoked a spate of comments on the blog.
Mr. Watanabe, later appointed chairperson of the labor union,
happened to come upon the blog when looking for someone to consult.
He had reportedly had doubts about the long working hours (i.e. showing
up to work at 8:30 a.m. and leaving at 8:30 p.m. in the off-season or
9:00 or 10:00 p.m. during peak season), the limit on overtime payments,
and the difficulty in securing paid holidays. Having learnt through
the blog that he had colleagues across the country who shared his doubts,
he made up his mind to form a labor union to rectify the situation.
In February this year, he announced his plan to form union on the
blog, while notifying the company of his intention. The first ever
collective bargaining is expected to be conducted at the beginning
of March. The human resources department of the company is reportedly
investigating the facts about long working hours, commenting that
they intended to deal with collective bargaining in a spirit of good
faith.
(Asahi Shimbun, February)
-Recruitment Activities in Popular Internet-Based Game-
Japan's leading social network service Mixi Inc. is to open up bases
for recruitment of newly graduating students within "Second Life,"
a popular Internet-based virtual world. It is planning to make company
information images exclusively available in this on-line game and
arrangement to enable job-seeking students to ask recruitment staff
a variety of questions in the virtual world. The company has made
this decision in the belief that users of this game are sensitive to
Internet-based businesses.
Mixi is to engage in full-scale recruitment activities for newly
graduating students for the first time for those joining the company
in April 2008, expecting to hire 30 or so new graduates.
"Second
Life" is a virtual world on the Internet, which enables
its users to create motional avatars who,enjoy shopping with a virtual
currency and interact with each other. Job-seeking students and
recruitment staff of Mixi communicate with each other through their
avatars in this game.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun, February)
Special Issue
-Difficult Working Conditions of Hospital Doctors-
In February, Kyodo News reported that the Nayoro Labour Standards
Inspection Office in Hokkaido had pronounced the death in 2003 of
a male pediatric doctor (then 31) as an industrial accident.
According to the bereaved family, the doctor was responsible for
emergency visits and pediatric outpatients, in addition to three
night duties per month, and worked overtime in excess of 100 hours
a month in the year before his fatal heart attack.
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2003/no.80/80_si.html
