- This year's report
of the Labour Issues Study Committee advocates "a market
economy with a human face" as a social principle for the
21st century. It warns against "excessive financial speculation"
and the "unregulated free market". At the same time,
it emphasises enterprise management based on "respect for
human beings" and "a long-term vision".
The
report mentions that the maintenance and creation of employment
is the biggest responsibility of employers. It says that the
Japanese management policy should be adhered to as in the past,
which sets the human being as the base of organisation management
and has been developed for human welfare and growth. It also
emphasises the needs to train workers in the manufacturing sector
for the long-term, since the human resource is the most important
resource.
The
above points are mostly in line with RENGO's basic policies.
I appreciate that these principles were raised clearly at the
start of the spring offensive.
However, restructuring of
employment has already taken place. I want the committee to grasp
the situation and provide stronger leadership.
- The idea of how
to do this in concrete terms has never been changed. For stability
of employment, it says that it is a precondition to improve competitive
power of enterprises and to rectify the high cost structure of
state and private enterprises. Therefore, it can not help but
to reduce the total labour costs. Particularly, it proposes boldly
that measures should be examined to share the pain between labour
and management not only at the level of wages but also through
the wage system, retirement payment, pensions, and work sharing
scheme, this coming spring offensive.
As for
wage increases, their stance is to suppress them as same as in
the past. The report says that "it is required to take a
very cautious stance concerning wage increases broadly against
the background of no improvement in productivity," and "individual
companies increasingly have difficulties to pay, and in fact
quite a few have no choice but to cut the wages."
- What is noticeable
in this report is that it suggests "flexible work sharing"
through "a diversification of employment "as a means
of restraining labour costs. It says, "we can not anymore
respond to the maintenance and the creation of employment simply
by choosing, either wage increases or employment.
In
concrete terms, the report raises 1) wage cut combined with shortening
of working hours, 2) transfer to the hourly wage system wherever
possible to control actual hours worked. Rengo argued repeatedly
that without "the principle of equal treatment" which
exists in the Netherlands, for example, it is not possible to
provide "an appropriate opportunity for employment"
as Nikkeiren described. It is easily predicted that employment
would be polarised not diversified.
As Nikkeiren
itself pointed out, it is important to achieve "improvement
in workers' quality of life" and "stability of employment".
It is not possible to practice "a work sharing scheme"
without the establishment and observation of working rules. It
should be given a priority to remove overtime which is not claimed
and to reduce overtime, which would lead to the maintenance and
expansion of employment.
- What is characteristic
in this report compared to the last year's one, it lacks suggestions
for the "expansion of domestic demand" or "an
increase in disposable income", which are essential measures
for "business recovery and employment stability" although
these are advocated in the report. Inside the report a table
shows the vicious circle between uncertainty of employment and
income, consumption decline and decline in domestic demand, however,
there was no reference to this in the text itself.
As
for anti-cyclical measures, it is a demand merely for the government
and it does not make employers responsible for such measures
through improvement in disposable income.
The management
strategy, which aims at strengthening competition through cost
retrenchment has already reached its limit. When we advocate
the management method which "respects human beings"
and, which is based on "a long-term view", we should
take a positive position toward "stability in employment
and improvement in workers' quality of life" We do not have
any more concern about inflation. It is the time for us to part
from a theory of wage control which is based on a principle of
productivity standard.
RENGO will thrust aside
this theory of wage hike suppression, and it will breakthrough
crises in employment and life and will create the future recovery
of the Japanese economy.
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