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Government haste in relaxing labor regulations is to meet U.S. requests
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The government is going ahead with relaxing labor regulations by adversely revising labor laws. The plan was revealed in a draft proposal that the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry presented to the June meeting of the ministry's labor policy council subcommittee on working conditions, which consists of management, labor, and public interest representatives.

The proposal consists of two major parts: One is to revise the Labor Standards Law in order to "establish a system appropriate for self-reliant work." By exempting workers earning more than a certain amount of annual income (except for those engaged in production) from working hour regulations in order to make them ineligible for overtime payment, the policy intends to legalize long working hours and unpaid work.

The other point is an enactment of a labor contract law that enables the company to set office regulations as the working conditions and to change them on condition of an agreement with a labor union joined by the majority of the employees. This will open a path for the management to worsen the working conditions in disregard of opposition. The policy also proposes a mechanism to allow companies to dismiss workers by paying money in the event of a court ruling that rejects the dismissal. Labor unions are all opposing the proposal.

In the subcommittee meeting, not only labor but also management (Nippon Keidanren=Japan Business Federation) expressed firm opposition to the labor ministry's rush to produce an interim report in July based on the ministry's draft.

The reason that Keidanren, an advocate of exempting white-collar workers from work hour regulations, is opposed to the ministry's proposal is that it felt offended by the ministry's sudden proposal to increase the overtime payment rate to 150 percent from the present 125 percent of base pay.

The government, however, has its own reason to rush, even provoking the unexpected opposition by business circles. The United States is strongly pressing Japan to revise its labor legislation.

The Japan-U.S. Investment Initiatives, a Japan-U.S. consultative body established through an agreement made by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro and U.S. President George Bush five years ago, is to publish its 2006 annual report at the end of June.

At Japan-U.S. working-level meetings held at the end of 2005 and on June 5 this year to prepare for the report, U.S. interests were focused on a self-reliant work system, a contract labor law, and the liberalization of regulations on temporary workers.

Last March, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Japan submitted a request to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry that the interim report to be issued in July provides for establishing in a contract labor law a system that disputes over dismissals can be settled by simply paying compensation.

The government's attempt to bend over backwards to adversely revise labor laws in order to increase the profits of U.S. corporations must not be condoned.
- Akahata, June 29, 2006