The Japan Labor Flash No.81
Email Journal April 2, 2007
Statistical Reports
Main Labor Economic Indicators
Current Topics
33 Percent of Large Firms have Employees Working 100 or More Hours
of Overtime per Month
Although Majority Believe That Training of Subordinates and Junior
Employees Is Task for Managers...
Public Policies
Bills on Revised Labor Standards Law, Labor Contract Law and Revised
Minimum Wage Law to Be Submitted to Diet
Part-Time Workers with Disabilities to Be Subject to Statutory
Employment Quota for Disabled Workers
News Clippings
Looking to a Picture Book to Spread Corporate Principles
Upgrading Contract Workers to Regular Employees
Special Issue
2007 Spring Joint Labor Negotiations: Most Leading Firms Respond,
While New Tasks Crop up for Unions
Statistical Reports
-Main Labor Economic Indicators-
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/200704/index.htm
Current Topics
-33 Percent of Large Firms have Employees Working 100 or More Hours
of Overtime per Month-
The Central Labour Relations Commission, recently published the
preliminary findings of its 2006 Comprehensive Survey on Wages (247
respondent companies; rate of return: 66.2%) aimed at large firms each
with capital of 500 million yen or more and 1,000 or more employees.
Annual scheduled working hours at an average firm were 1,881 hours,
54 minutes for white-collar workers at headquarters, and 1,883 hours,
46 minutes for workers in major business establishments; this means
the average employee worked 7 hours, 42 minutes per day. Asked if there
were any employees whose overtime in June 2006 exceeded 100 hours, 33.2
percent of the firms surveyed gave an affirmative response. Regarding
the health management of employees working long hours, 75.3 percent of
firms replied that they make arrangements for such workers to have
interviews with industrial physicians for advice.
-Although Majority Believe That Training of Subordinates and Junior
Employees Is Task for Managers...-
In February, the Nippon Omni-Management Association published the
findings of a survey on middle managers, addressed to companies and
other organizations across Japan (conducted in Autumn 2006; 546
effective replies). According to the findings, the largest proportion
of the respondents surveyed (85 percent) replied that "to train
subordinates and junior employees" is the important responsibility
of managers - far greater, by more than 10 percent, than the answer
chosen by the second largest proportion (74.2%), who selected "to
achieve goals assigned to the department or the division". As for
managers' major concerns, the largest proportion, 41.2 percent,
answered that they had excessively heavy workloads.
In March, Info Plant Co., Ltd., a research company, carried out
an online survey directed at 1,000 employees aged 20 or older across
the country. The survey shows that, when asked if they can deal with
questions from or provide instructions to new recruits without feeling
unduly pressed, 25 percent of those surveyed were doubtful, and 5
percent had very little confidence in their own ability. The survey
highlights the fact that, while 56 percent of the respondents replied
that they can manage, albeit with difficulty, one out of three were
inclined to shun the training of new recruits.
Public Policies
-Bills on Revised Labor Standards Law, Labor Contract Law and Revised
Minimum Wage Law to Be Submitted to Diet-
At a cabinet meeting held on March 13, the Government decided to
submit to the Diet bills regarding the Reviced Labor Standards Law,
the Labor Contract Law and the revised Minimum Wage Law. The bill on
the revised Labor Standards Law stipulates an increase in overtime
premium rates to encourage a reduction in overtime, while the bill
on the Labor Contract Law provides clearly stated rules affecting
labor contracts, as well as the revision, renewal and termination of
contracts, so as to deal with the diversification of contract patterns
and an increase in individual labor disputes. The bill revising the
Minimum Wage Law requires clear criteria for determining regional
minimum wage levels in relation to their consistency with the amount
of welfare payments. Now all six bills - the latest three and those
already submitted to the Diet in February regarding the revisions of
the Part-Time Work Law, the Employment Insurance Law and the Employment
Measure Law - have been put on the table. For the bills regarding the
revisions of the Labor Standards Law, the Part-Time Work Law, the
Employment Insurance Law, and the Employment Measures Law, see "Public
Policies" in issue No. 79 of the Japan Labor Flash.
https://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2007/79.html
-Part-Time Workers with Disabilities to Be Subject to Statutory
Employment Quota for Disabled Workers-
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has decided to revise the
regulations on the legally prescribed quota for hiring disabled workers
so as to include those who work part-time, and to discuss a possible
revision of the regulation requiring firms to pay a mandatory charge
when they fail to meet the prescribed quota so that small and medium
-sized enterprises, as well as large enterprises, will be subject to
this regulation. The Labor Policy Council of the Ministry will start
a full-scale discussion this summer, with an eye to submitting a relevant
bill to the Diet in 2008.
The current Employment Promotion Act for People with Disabilities
requires firms with 56 or more employees to satisfy a statutory
employment quota for disabled workers (1.8 percent of employees as
a whole), but will be revised in order to encourage firms to hire
workers with disabilities, so that part-time workers who work more
than 20 hours but less than 30 hours per week will be included,
regardless of the nature and degree of their disability, in calculating
the prescribed quota. However, in consideration of a possible reaction
by firms to the revised law - by hiring, for example, workers with
disabilities only as part-time workers, rather than as regular
employees - the revision will incorporate some safeguards, such as
counting one part-time worker with disabilities as equivalent to 0.5
of a full-time one.
At the same time, while the current law calls on firms with more than
300 workers which fail to satisfy the prescribed quota to pay a charge
of 50,000 yen a month for each disabled worker whom they should have
hired, the revised law will apply this rule to small and medium-sized
enterprises with less than 300 workers, as well as larger firms.
News Clippings
-Looking to a Picture Book to Spread Corporate Principles-
To familiarize each employee with corporate management principles
enhances corporate competitive power. Fujikura Ltd., the leading
manufacturer of fiber products and electronic components, has adopted
a unique approach to help employees understand the importance of corporate
social responsibility (CSR) and corporate management principles, through
the use of a picture book.
In 2005, newly appointed president Ohashi drew up a new set of corporate
principles, but felt that they were not reaching all employees, so he
decided to publish a picture book. In September 2006, the book was
created in the hope that the firm's corporate principles would be conveyed
in an easy-to-understand way, and some 20,000 copies were distributed
to employees and former employees in Japan. Various animals appearing
in the picture book convey various messages to readers. The importance
of change, and why each employee needs to change, are explained along
with the current situation affecting the company.
The picture book, although consisting of just 30 pages, seems to
have had a substantial impact on employees. Even so, a corporate climate
forged over the last 120 years, since the company was founded, cannot
possibly be changed overnight. Thus, the publishing of the picture book
is regarded as a starting point for reform of employees' attitudes rather
than the goal.
(Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, March)
-Upgrading Contract Workers to Regular Employees-
Fast Retailing Co., which runs the Uniqlo casual clothing chain,
has announced that it would elevate to the rank of regular employees
5,000 out of its 20,000 part-time and contract workers engaged in
sales at its outlets. The upgrading of these employees, designed to
ensure that able workers are retained, will be carried out gradually
over two years starting this April. A worker whose status is upgraded
to that of a regular employee will earn an extra 10 percent (or more)
a year thanks to semiannual bonus payments.
On April 1, Uniqlo also introduced a regional regular employment
system, whereby regular employees are not required to transfer to
outlets far from their areas of preference. Workers under this system
will be paid on a monthly basis, and although they are eligible for
semiannual bonuses, their total salaries will be relatively lower
than those of regular employees subject to out-of-region relocation.
The system is designed for experienced "arubaito" (part-time workers)
or contract workers who work at least 40 hours a week. A total of
5,000 workers who want to work in this system will be selected over
the coming two years.
With this scheduled upgrade of workers' status, the company will
shoulder an additional labor cost exceeding more than one billion
yen in two years' time, but it says that its intention is to make
prior investment in the improvement of service and sales, and to
increase profits by removing wage differentials between part-time
and full-time workers as much as it can.
(Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, March)
Special Issue
-2007 Spring Joint Labor Negotiations: Most Leading Firms Respond,
While New Tasks Crop up for Unions-
On March 14, major automaker, electric and electronics and other
companies responded to the demands of major labor unions in the
automobile, electric and electronics industry affiliated with Kinzoku
Rokyo (the Japan Council of International Metalworkers' Federation,
or IMF-JC). Most major electric and electronics companies agreed to
raise basic monthly pay by 1,000 yen - twice as much as last year.
Toyota Motor Corp. offered a 1,000 yen raise in basic monthly pay,
the same as last year, though its union had asked for 1,500 yen.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. also balked at full
agreement with the demands of their unions. Although the unions of
automobile, electric and electronics manufacturers achieved increases
in basic pay for the second consecutive year, the companies maintained
a cautious stance towards pay hikes, giving priority to securing global
competitiveness and overriding the unions' insistence that, amid present
continued economic growth, the falling labor distribution rate should
return to normal, leading to the expansion of consumer spending and
thus stable economic growth.
US$=117yen （April 2, 2007)
Continued on;
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/archives/emm/2007/no.81/81_si.html
