Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 6 - 12 [LABOR]

Japan’s national trade union centers simultaneously work to oppose relaxation of labor laws

Japan’s two major national trade union centers, Zenroren and Rengo, have separately launched movements aiming to achieve their common goal of hindering the Abe government from drastically relaxing labor regulations.

In the past, whenever both centers concurrently increased their efforts to protect labor laws, the government has been forced to abandon attempts to roll back employment standards.

One of the two national trade union centers, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), has recently announced that it will carry out actions jointly with independent unions to oppose the government intent to adversely revise the current legislation pertaining to the use of labor.

The other center, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), on October 25 established its taskforce to block relaxation of worker protection regulations.

In 2003, the two union confederations successfully pushed the Koizumi Jun’ichiro government to incorporate a provision banning abuse of the dismissal right in the Labor Standards Law despite its initial attempt to change the law to one allowing employers to freely dismiss workers.

A massive campaign waged by Zenroren and Rengo in 2007 succeeded in having the first Abe administration give up its attempt to submit to the Diet a bill to introduce a “white-collar exemption” system to legalize unpaid overtime work.