|
|
Photo:
Leaders from government, labor,
and management exchange opinions |
The first government/labor/management work-sharing
study was held at a hotel in Tokyo on the evening of December 14. This
meeting was made possible through the Prime Minister's direction to the
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister in response to RENGO/NIKKEIREN's (Japan
Federation of Employers' Associations) release of their 'Declaration to
Promote <Social Consensus on Employment>' last October. The aim
of the meeting is to create a space to examine issues among government,
labor, and management and work to build consensus on basic ideas of work
sharing. Attendees included: HLW Minister Sakaguchi, HLW Ministry Councilor
Watanabe, HLW Director-General of Policy Planning and Evaluation Sakamoto
from the government, NIKKEIREN Chairman Okuda, Vice Chairman Ookuni, Director-General
Fukuoka from the employers side and RENGO President Sasamori, Vice President
Suzuki, General Secretary Kusano from the labor side. Representatives
from each side participated in the meeting and exchanged opinions for
over an hour. Meetings will continue to study matters until next March.
At this first meeting HLW Minister Sakaguchi raised issues from the
outset on the current employment problems as well as the long-term significance
on rethinking work methods and life-styles.
Afterwards, President Sasamori spoke saying, “we should take every
measure against the job problem. Examining work-sharing among government/labor/management
is a measure to improve employment.” He also stressed that it was
“necessary to conduct <social reform> including revising
notions of working.” Further, he proposed two steps when proceeding
to create a Japanese type of work-sharing; maintaining and securing
employment is an urgent measure, and creating employment is a mid to
long-term measure.
NIKKEIREN Chairman Okuda stated that “structural reform on employment
measures should advance with the greatest care. We regard work-sharing
as the sharing of jobs by shortening working hours. We hope that government,
labor and management will team up to exchange ideas.”
The meeting reaffirmed its goal to build consensus by the March 2002
on the topics such as: (1) the definition of work-sharing and how it
should be organized, (2) improving the conditions necessary to promote
work-sharing, (3) the division of roles for government, labor, and management.
They plan to work on rigorous activities including a working-level taskforce
after the New Year.
|
