Business circles refuse wage hike in coming year

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Business circles refuse wage hike in coming year

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) on December 19 published its 2007 Position Paper on Management and Human Resources that calls for wage restraint and drastic cuts in corporate taxes.

Despite the fact that large corporations are making record-high profits, this position paper shows business circles' determination to refuse to raise wage levels in the 2007 labor-management wage negotiations.

The paper also stressed the need for "flexibility" in employment in order to accelerate the spread of non-regular employment on the grounds of increasing corporate competitiveness,.

Arguing that legally obliging corporations to hire part-timers who work for a long period of time as regular workers is inappropriate, the paper set forth a policy of expanding low-wage unstable jobs.

The paper also demands that regulations in labor laws be relaxed, and urges the government to introduce a white-collar exemption system under the pretext of a "flexible style of working."

In order to enable corporations to use temporary workers as long as they like, the paper calls on the government to free employers from an obligation imposed by the Worker Dispatch Law to offer temps direct employment after a specified period of employment.
- Akahata, December 20, 2006