III. Laws governing industrial relations
Under Article 28 of the Constitution, workers have the right to organize, conduct collective bargaining and otherwise act collectively. The Trade Union Law protects workers from unfair labor practices and exempts strikers from civil or criminal liability. In addition to legally recognized collective bargaining, a joint consultation system between labor and management exists which is widely used to promote communication. Joint consultation gives the two parties opportunities to discuss a wide range of labor issues and plays a role in averting strikes and other disputes.
In contrast to the declining number of collective industrial disputes, individual labor disputes have been increasing because individual workers have tended to make complaints directly and not go through a labor union, as a result of changing employment patterns and diversified worker needs.
Legitimate strikes are defined as “work-actions undertaken to improve workers’ economic standing” and strikes undertaken for any other purposes are unlawful.
Unfair labor practices include treating employees disadvantageously because they are involved in labor union activities; refusing to negotiate with labor union representatives for unacceptable reasons; obstructing union organizing; unfairly treating the labor union for applying to the Labor Relations Commision for relief, and other practices intended to weaken labor unions.
IV. Collective bargaining and labour disputes
Collective bargaining describes negotiations between labor union officials and management concerning working conditions and other matters. Generally speaking, the smaller the company, the more often is collective bargaining used. The usual matters discussed are wages, working hours, employment and personnel related issues. In most cases (88.6%), bargaining is conducted by the unit union on its own;
Many companies, mainly large ones, also use the joint consultation system. Under this system, management and worker representatives discuss matters affecting the workplace environment and exchange information and opinions to facilitate mutual understanding and communication. Joint consultation is beneficial for improving working conditions, giving the two sides an opportunity to share information, improving the labor-management relationship and promoting employee participation in management.
Labor disputes occur usually when management and labor fail to reach agreement over the matters being discussed at the collective bargaining stage. In 1999, there were 1,102 labor disputes ivolving 1,134,000 workers. Of these disputes, 419 were strikes or lockouts. The main issues were wages and benefits, and management and personnel.
V. Shunto
The spring labor offensive is valuable because annual wage negotiations allow wages to be set appropriately reflecting the current economic situation and because companies where management and labor are inexperienced in determining wages can look to the ongoing wage rate for guidance. Shunto is a Japanese term, usually translated as "spring wages offensive", with the word "wages" sometimes substituted with livelihood, labour or similar. It refers to the annual wage negotiations between the enterprise unions and the employers.
The annual offensive emerged in the late 1940s under pressure from workers who were organised mainly in company-based unions. Pay was extremely low and conditions in the factories, especially safety, were shockingly poor. In the steel industry for example, from the 1940s to the mid-1950s at least one worker was killed on the job daily. The exceedingly low level of wages in that period can be judged from the fact that between 1965 and 1995 wages increased by 1,000 percent. The employers in Japan granted concessions to the working class to buy industrial peace. Growing discontentment among workers is reflected in declining union membership. In 1975, the unions covered one-third of the workforce but by 1998 the figure had plummeted to 22.4 percent. This downward trend is gaining momentum as more workers come to view the unions as having little relevance to their struggles.
Klement
Sobota, 23. novembra 2024
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