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Changes
in Corporate Management and Labor-Management Relations in
the 21st Century
—Responding
to Transformations in Corporate Governance in Japan—
(July 31, 2003)
Labor-Management Relations Committee |
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Discussions
and reform movements regarding corporate governance in Japan
are showing signs of intensifying. A major shift is being
made toward emphasizing the role of shareholders. However,
arguments on corporate governance should not only include
companies and shareholders; they must also consider the relationships
between companies and their employees. As corporate reorganization
advances and personnel management gradually changes shape
accompanying transformations in corporate governance, there
is mounting concern about the decline in collective problem-solving
and rule-forming mechanisms which have functioned relatively
well toward the creation of sound corporate organizational
operations up to now. There are worries that corporate reorganizations
may obscure the identity of parties to labor-management consultations
and negotiations, or they may expand the “vacuum”
in the labor-management consultation system whereby the system
will not be implemented or will not function adequately. Furthermore,
as the personnel management system becomes increasingly performance-based
and individualistic, more efforts must be made to raise employee
morale. This would include, for example, forming rules and
establishing an operation monitoring mechanism under the labor-management
consultation system or other frameworks that define labor-management
relations.
Employees are the very source and important stakeholders of
corporate activities. Allowing them to participate in corporate
management and raising their willingness to work are keys
to improving productivity. This is another reason why the
function of collective labor-management relations must be
reorganized and strengthened so that it can more readily adapt
to changes in corporate management and new issues in labor-management
relations accompanying those changes. In any age, issues arising
from changes in corporate management require efforts of both
labor and management. The importance of settling problems
within the framework of collective labor-management relations
remains unchanged. |
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| The
general outline of the proposal is as follows. |
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| 1.
Reorganizing labor-management consultation systems along with
corporate reorganization |
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| (1) |
Labor and management
should inspect the functions of the labor-management consultation
system and its extent of the impact within a company. They
must then work to strengthen or establish collective rule-forming
and problem-solving mechanisms in the context of the corporate
organization structure. |
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| (2) |
Institutions such
as labor-management consultation systems which reflect the
opinions of middle-level managers as well as ‘atypical’
workers who fall outside the group of workers with regular
full-time employment (e.g., part-time workers, self-employed
workers, contract workers, etc.) need to be constructed. |
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| 2.
Labor and management must respond to changes in working environments
and personnel management |
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| (1) |
Along with trends
toward performance-based and individualistic personnel management
systems, personnel wage plans need to be revised and an operation
monitoring scheme be established within a framework of collective
labor-management relations centering on the labor-management
consultation system. |
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| (2) |
Full-scale efforts
need to be made concerning grievance procedures for settling
complaints and dissatisfactions related to evaluations and
treatments. |
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| 3.
Labor-management consultation systems are important for solving
management problems efficiently |
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| (1) |
Labor unions based
on labor-management consultations and the participation and
cooperation of employees are essential for solving management
problems efficiently. At the same time, considerations should
be given to the formulation of insider rules and measures
for internal accusations as preconditions for the above. |
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| (2) |
It is necessary
to lay down the conditions for developing “labor union
officials” having outstanding specialized abilities who
can respond to labor and management problems. As part of this
effort, the establishment of an occupational training course
is recommended. |
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