January 24, 2012
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2012 January 18 - 24 [LABOR]
Keidanren refuses to consider wage hike demands |
The report, issued by Keidanren’s Committee on Management and Labor Policy, is known as the management’s strategy for the annual wage hike offensive.
Keidanren even turned down the pro-business Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) request to increase wages by just 1%, saying that Rengo “is naive in regard to the critical business environment facing Japanese corporations.”
Stressing the need to “form a corporate structure in order to overcome the ever-intensifying global competition,” the report states that to give automatic pay hikes every year under a mandatory salary increase framework is “no longer a matter of course.” It also raised the possibility that suspension and freezing of mandatory pay hikes will be presented in negotiations with trade unions.
The report calls for cutting labor costs through establishing a “personnel and wage system based on evaluation of individual worker’s job performance, role, and contribution to his/her company.”
In the report, Keidanren turns its back on the task of addressing increases in social inequality by saying that improvement of working conditions of contingent workers, who account for almost one third of total labor force, “may cause a decline in employment and is thus inappropriate.”
The report tries to fan a sense of crisis by claiming that the Japanese economy “is reaching a serious turning point” and that “corporate activities face a further critical situation.” However, the total amount of internal reserve funds amassed by large corporations with more than one billion yen capital reached 266 trillion yen, up by 90 trillion yen from 10 years ago. During the same period, the average annual income of workers decreased by about 500,000 yen.
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