NPA proposes big salary cuts for public employees

The National Personnel Authority on August 8 recommended monthly salaries of government employees for FY 2003 (April 2003-March 2004) to be cut by 4,054 yen (about 33.5 dollars).

If the Cabinet and the Diet agree to the proposed cuts, the average annual income of a national employee would drop to 6.15 million yen, down 163,000 yen (1,358 dollars) from last fiscal year. This is the biggest pay cut the NPA has recommended since the system began in 1948.

The NPA says that the cut will help fill the salary gap between the government sector and the non-government sector.

Akahata of August 9 said that cuts in public employees' salaries will create a vicious circle of falling personal consumption and economic slowdown at a time when corporate restructuring and wage cuts are prevalent in the private sector.

The NPA recommendation system is intended to protect the interests of government employees whose rights to strike and other workers' rights are denied by the government. The NPA proposal of salary cuts for them for two years in a row is tantamount to neglecting their duties.

In a published statement on the same day, Bannai Mitsuo, secretary general of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) said that the proposed cuts will affect not only the 7.5 million public services employees but also the livelihoods of a wide range of people, directly and indirectly. (end)