 Business leaders want more wage cuts The Japan Business Federation (JBF or Nippon Keidanren) on December 14 announced in its policy paper calls for further wage cuts in preparation for the annual labor-management wage talks that will take place in the first quarter of next year. The paper, compiled by the JBF's panel on labor policy, uses "fierce international competition and uncertain prospects of the business environment" as the pretext for calling for wage talks to focus on decreasing wages instead of an across-the-board increase in basic wages. The panel insists that a wage reform should abolish the present system of automatic annual pay raises and calls for more diverse forms of employment such as temporary and contract workers in order to reduce labor costs. It also calls for more labor law revisions in pursuit of further deregulation of the labor market that will allow more categories of employment to adopt the discretionary work system. In a published statement on the same day, Ban'nai Mitsuo, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) secretary general, criticized the JBF for trying to change the purpose of annual labor-management negotiations, stating, "The policy paper reveals business circles' eagerness to deprive workers of their legitimate rights, in disregard of relevant legislation to further the interests of large corporations." (end) |