Japan Press Weekly

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2012 February 22 - 28 [LABOR]

National gov’t workers suffer pay cuts while having no right to collective bargaining

The House of Representatives on February 23 at its plenary session approved a bill to cut national government employees’ salary by an average of 7.8 % by majority vote. The Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party of Japan voted against the bill.

National public servants in Japan have been left without the rights to collective bargaining and to strike in disregard of Article 28 of the Constitution and the ILO recommendation. Instead, the National Personnel Authority makes salary recommendations to the government. This time, however, the government has totally ignored the recommendation system.

Prior to the plenary session, JCP Shiokawa Tetsuya took the floor at the House Internal Affairs Committee to oppose the pay-cut bill.

Shiokawa stated, “What the Diet should do now is to help fully provide basic labor rights” to public workers.

He criticized the bill for dampening the spirits of national public service personnel who are working hard in the 3.11 disaster-hit areas to help restore victims’ livelihoods and revive local economies.

Shiokawa pointed out that cuts in the salaries of national government employees will also affect the salaries of about 6 million public workers in local governments and independent administrative institutions.

He added that private sector wages will also be subject to substantial cuts and said, “Sharp cutbacks in the salaries of national government employees only create a vicious cycle of decline in the wages of all the workers, resulting in a further drop in domestic demand and overall financial deterioration.”