Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 November 7 - 13 [LABOR]

Political support for corporate restructuring - IV: Need to establish work rules

Major corporations have been promoting massive job cuts since last year. Sony has announced that it will have 2,000 domestic workers accept early retirement as part of its downsizing scheme to slash 10,000 jobs inside and outside Japan.

Sharp plans to lay off 10,000 workers internationally and is urging 2,000 workers in Japan to accept early retirement. Ricoh has also announced a cut of 10,000 jobs. Panasonic, Toshiba, and NEC are also promoting major restructuring schemes.

Due to the closure and shrinking of factories throughout Japan, more than 130,000 workers have been laid off.

In a lawsuit filed by JAL workers against the carrier’s forcible retirement scheme, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ demand, making the four requirements for legitimate dismissal a mere facade.

In order to slip through regulations on dismissals, IBM Japan and other companies have started using a new tactic to dismiss workers of claiming failure to improve job performance.

JCP’s proposal

Policies supporting arbitrary corporate restructuring only lead to expansion of poverty and social disparities, cooling domestic demand, and deteriorating the national economy.

The Japanese Communist Party, in its proposal published in February this year, calls for the establishment of decent work rules that enable workers to have stable jobs and increase their incomes.

It demands that the government urge large corporations to fulfill their social responsibilities, defend workers’ rights, and pay them higher wages.

Makino Tomio, professor emeritus of Nihon University, supports the JCP policy by saying, “Stable employment will lead to expansion of domestic demand. In that sense, decent employment is a key to the healthy development of Japan’s economy.”

(End of the series)


Previous articles:

> Political support for corporate restructuring - I: End of life-time employment system [October 24, 2012]
> Political support for corporate restructuring - II: US demand for deregulation of labor laws [October 25, 2012]
> Political support for corporate restructuring - III: Revision of laws satisfies business world [October 26, 2012]