LABOUR-JAPAN: Work Sharing Eases Pain of Losing Jobs

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 29 2002 (IPS) - As Japan’s labour market braces for more job cuts in the fiscal new year starting April, a much-touted “work sharing” system is emerging as an alternative to further corporate restructuring and job losses.

“Work sharing is a means of protecting jobs in Japanese companies. The system is also more conducive to the Japanese environment that strives for job security unlike in the United States,” says Naoto Omi of the policy division of Zensen, the Japanese federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Mercantile, Food and Allied Workers Unions.

Under work sharing, a system developed in Europe, employers would have shorter work hours that would lead to the hiring of more employees – and thus address Japan’s record unemployment rate that hit 5.6 percent in December.

For now, work sharing is being seen as an emergency measure to reduce unemployment in Japan’s labour force of some 56 million. While work sharing would mean reduced individual salaries and bonuses, it would at least guarantee job security.

Labour unions say less than 1 percent of Japanese firms are trying out work sharing. These firms tend to be small or medium sized, with a large number of middle-aged employees.

Discussions around work sharing took top priority during labour negotiations at this time, traditionally known as ‘shunto’ or “spring offensive”, especially because even big companies are tightening their belts

Major steelmakers offered no pay hikes, while the managements of some firms agreed to sign an accord with labor unions pledging to try to secure jobs.

Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s largest automaker that posted 25 billion U.S. dollars in pre-tax profits for 2001, offered no pay-scale hikes despite its union’s demand for an additional 1,000 yen (7 U.S. dollars) per month on top of the regular 50 dollar raise for fiscal year 2002, which starts Apr. 1.

In February, Sanyo Electric Company and its union agreed to adopt a work sharing system under which employees would have more days off but also get a 20 percent cut in their basic salaries.

While work sharing was not adopted on a national basis this year, proponents and opponents agreed to further discuss the system this year, taking into account the peculiarities of Japanese labour — regular overtime and the increasing number of contract workers now replacing the old seniority system.

According to Omi, Japanese workers still tend to prioritise job security over high pay, based on post-war employment practice that centred on life-time employment practised in Japanese companies.

But adjusting to work sharing is not so simple. Hiroyuki Ida, assistant professor at Osaka University, explains, “In Japan, where overtime work with no pay is common, employment doesn’t increase even if working hours are simply cut.”

Ida says firms, especially small and medium ones, would not necessarily hire more workers doing shorter hours, because they prefer to get workers to work long hours for less pay.

He adds that the debate in Japan has so far not highlighted key aspects of work sharing discussed in places like Europe, such as abolishing wage gaps.

For example, if work sharing is aimed at decreasing the long hours put in by workers, unionists point out that Japan should follow countries like France, which has laws that stipulate a 35-hour working week. But Japan is not moving to set up such rules in the current debate.

In Germany, work sharing is adopted according to the conditions of different industries, but in Japan, again, this is not a major criterion.

Full-time workers are also wary of companies shifting to work sharing, saying it would affect their income because those who do get paid for overtime would lose this.

The Japan Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Mercantile Food and Allied Industries, one of the country’s largest unions, said in a statement last month that work sharing is ” a different word for pay cuts”.

Masayuko Tanabe, 52, secretary general of the union of a small supermarket in Tokyo, refused a management’s suggestion to introduce work sharing. He says the system might work for big companies with large profits, but not for small and medium companies where the smaller number of workers must share smaller profits.

Some women part-time workers, mostly employed in supermarkets and department stores, have mixed views about work sharing

Michiko Watanabe, a lawyer representing women workers, says women part-timers might face worsening conditions as more workers take on their jobs, a system that will force them to work shorter hours.

But Hatsue Okada, a 33-year-old nurse, says the flexibility that work sharing offers works for her. “I had to quit my job when I got married because working hours were too long,” she says. “But with the work sharing system, I can still work and pick up the kids and take the weekends off.”

Some employers say work sharing does not necessarily translate into drastic reductions in their personnel budgets.

Still, proponents point out that the system would encourage Japanese workers to be more efficient and release them for long working hours.

Koji Kitaoka, president of the day care for seniors Nikke Kakogawa Company and also has a food processing business, was one of Japan’s first employers to introduce work sharing.

He says, ” The company has been able to hire skilled and experienced workers who cannot or do not want to do full-time jobs.”