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2 April, 2020Through the JCM’s Shunto (spring labour offensive), many unions at large companies in the Japanese metal industry have secured wage increases.
Labor unions at small and medium-sized companies negotiating with employers based on the results of the negotiations with large companies.
Unions at large companies, which belong to the industrial federations that comprise the Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions (JCM), submitted written demands for wages and working conditions to companies in February, upon which negotiations followed.
On 11 March, almost all unions had received responses.
- All 56 unions confirmed that they would receive a regular wage increase, 44 of which had secured wage increase averaging 1,060 Japanese yen.
- The unions secured bonuses averaging 5.1 months of the annual pay.
- The unions secured intra-company minimum wage agreements with an average monthly raise of 1,698 Japanese yen.
In a statement on the results achieved in the 2020 Shunto, JCM president Akira Takakura, says:
"In recognition of the absolute necessity to transform the Japanese economy to achieve a robust economic structure supported and led by consumer spending, unions demanded that the wage increase received over the last several years be maintained, as a means of investing in people.
"The cooperation and efforts made by union members are absolutely necessary to achieve industrial and company development. Unions strongly demanded that management present their responses to dispel concerns and that everyone face the adverse situation together.
"Both the global and the Japanese economies are seeing conditions deteriorate day by day, and moreover the future impact of Covid-19 is uncertain at the moment. However, the fact the many unions managed to achieve pay raises equivalent to or greater than last year proofs that labour and management have fulfilled their roles in avoiding hitting a new economic low.
"Increasing wages and improving working conditions across the entire value chain is a vital component for strengthening the competitiveness of the metal industry. Through the Shunto, we will provide support seeking to raise overall wage levels and rectify disparites by expanding the number of unions able to secure wage increases, and by obtaining pay raises surpassing those at large companies."