National government employees’ wage to be reduced for second year in a row

Japan Press Weekly

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National government employees’ wage to be reduced for second year in a row

The National Personnel Authority on August 10 made a recommendation to the Cabinet and the government to cut the salaries and annual bonuses of national government employees for the second consecutive year.

In its recommendation, the Authority calls for a 1.5% reduction in basic wages of government workers who are in their late 50s because their wages are higher than that of private sector workers of the same age.

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Secretary General Odagawa Yoshikazu on the same day issued a statement.

The statement said, “If the recommendation is implemented as the Authority proposed, it will make a broad impact on wages of local government workers and other workers whose wages are determined with reference to the recommendation. Such impact will cause a chain reaction of wage cuts and will further dampen domestic demand.”

As for the Authority’s proposal that government employees aged 55 and over will face a certain amount of pay cut, the statement criticized the proposal for making adverse changes in working conditions and said that it is vicious and outrageous.

The Japan Federation of National Public Service Employees’ Unions (Kokkororen) also issued a statement opposing the recommendation.

In the statement, Kokkororen said that cutback in wages of workers in their late 50s is age discrimination and thus unacceptable.

The statement said that in order to get out of the deflationary economy, it is necessary for the government to give careful consideration to the matter and to decide not to implement the recommendation.

- Akahata, August 11-12, 2010