2007 Spring Joint Labor Negotiations: Pay Hikes and Overviews
On June 6, Nippon Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) published its final compilation of results of the 2007 Spring Joint Labor Negotiations at large firms, and the third-round compilation of corresponding results at small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the survey, 233 large firms, or 86.6 percent of the total 269 large firms surveyed, responded to the questionnaire. The weighted average pay hike (includes periodical pay raise) at 114 firms of them, with the exception of 119 firms whose average pay hikes are unknown, was - 6,202 yen, an increase of 1.90 percent. The figure was higher by 389 yen, or 0.14 percentage points, than the previous year, exceeding 6,000 yen for the first time in six years.
In the survey addressed to SMEs, 387 firms at 50.6 percent of a total of 765 SMEs with less than 500 employees subject to the survey responded to the questionnaire. The weighted average pay hike at 379 small and medium-sized firms, with the exception of eight firms whose pay hikes are unknown, was 4,278 yen, an increase of 1.68 percent. The actual margin of increase was higher than last year by 215 yen, or 0.08 percentage points.
The focal points of the 2007 Spring Struggle were as reported in the Japan Labor Flash No. 77 and No. 78, under "Special Issue" and "Current Topics", respectively, the keywords being "widening income gap" and "labor distribution rate." Since then, the Japan Labor Flash has featured the activities of six industrial unions which organized a joint struggle of like-minded bodies to strengthen their bargaining power ("Current Topics" in issue No. 80) and the moves of the SMEs´ unions which were gaining handsome pay hikes ("Current Topics" in issue No. 83), but the exact implication of these wage increases are not clear.
Rengo President Tsuyoshi Takagi commented favorably, characterizing this year as a year of change for the offensive, stating that the success in improving wage levels had created a new surge towards better living standards in the future. At the same time, he also commented that "it is not easy to understand precisely in what ways wage levels have improved, and the results at large firms have had only weak effects on the negotiations with SMEs. These are tasks still to be solved." "Prior objectives such as reversing the trend in the labor distribution rate and rectifying the current distribution of added value remain to be achieved," he concluded.
Efforts to improve the working conditions of part-time workers by narrowing the gap between them and regular employees, and eliminating the gap in labor conditions between large firms and SMEs are in some ways part of the labor-related structural reform which has been a traditional target in Japan. This is not something which can be achieved overnight, but is still a serious task facing labor and management. Rengo will reportedly focus on this issue again in dealing with the Spring Joint Labor Negotiations next year.
