| Introduction |
RENGO has been promoting its activities to achieve an “1800-hour working year” for the realization of a society where people can actually feel comfort and affluence, along with a new policy for shorter working hours (endorsed at the first Central Executive Committee Meeting in October 2001) targeted for fiscal year 2005.
Further, RENGO established that it would “include working hour management into labor agreements” as one of the issues for the Minimum Wage Movement since the 2003 Spring Struggle and revived activities to shorten total working hours centering around the resolution of chronic overtime work and the eradication of unpaid overtime.
In addition, RENGO endorsed “eradication of unpaid overtime” as a priority issue for its FY 2004-2005 Action Policy. RENGO will endorse its activity policies for shorter working hours from October 2003 through September 2004 and fortify its activities for their steady progress.
|
| 1. Working Hour Management Activities |
RENGO will conduct a “campaign to eradicate unpaid overtime” in November 2003 while fully enforcing its labor-management consultations based on examinations of previous year’s activities, supervise efforts at workplaces from autumn, and pursue agreements for working hour management at the 2004 Spring Struggle.
Specifically, RENGO will ascertain real conditions surrounding working hours and develop activities to check on time management systems based on its “Activities for Shorter Working Hours” (endorsed at the 13th Central Executive Committee Meeting on September 12, 2002); “Activity Guideline for Strict Working Hour Management”; “Working Hour Management Check Sheet”; “Basic Agreement Model for Working Hour Management”; and so forth, all of which were endorsed at the 15th Central Executive Committee Meeting on October 24, 2002.
In addition, RENGO will promote understanding of problem areas and fortification of labor-management consultations to improve those areas, while working to include working hour management into labor agreements. RENGO will bring about a realization of shorter working hours though the eradication of unpaid overtime and a reduction of chronic overtime.
Meanwhile, in order to abolish “unpaid overtime,” the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has instructed management to conduct strict working hour management and taken proactive activities for the resolution of unpaid overtime through joint labor/management efforts based on a directive it issued on April 6, 2001 for “standards for measures that employers should take to fairly understand working hours,” and a May 23, 2003 directive for “guidelines for measures etc., that should be taken to resolve unpaid overtime.”
Based on those directives, the Ministry continues to work to publicize its “Eliminate Unpaid Overtime Wage Campaign Month” and “Supervise Unpaid Overtime Wage Month” and working hour management.
|
| 2. RENGO and Local RENGO’s Activities Issues |
| (1) |
Fortify activities in strict compliance with the Labour Standards Law and to achieve policies/systems demands for improving the infrastructure for shorter working hours.
|
| (2) |
Conduct the “campaign to eradicate unpaid overtime” in November. Beef up activities both in organizations and out by broadcasting radio commercials, displaying posters, distributing handouts, utilizing RENGO’s internet website, cooperating with general labor consultation, and through appeals to society.
|
| (3) |
Create and distribute a casebook for working hour management improvement and advance the movement by strengthening cooperation with affiliated organizations, industrial liaison councils, etc.
|
| (4) |
To effectively promote the shortening of the total number of working hours annually, continue last year’s policy to “include working hour management into labor agreements” as one of the issues for the Minimum Wage Movement in the 2004 Spring Struggle.
|
|
| 3. Activities by Affiliated Organizations |
| (1) |
Formulate each affiliate’s goals for shorter working hours based on their own actual conditions while orchestrating efforts with industrial liaison councils. At the same time, advance consensus building activities with economic organizations and others.
|
| (2) |
Affiliated organizations will link up with RENGO in order to aid activities in each union.
|
|
| 4.Each Union’s Activities |
Each union will: check real working hour management conditions at workplaces and each worker’s working hours, grasp issues and thoroughly strengthen labor-management consultations to improve these issues, create appropriate working hour management. By doing so, this will promote the elimination of unpaid overtime, reduction of chronic overtime, and promote the taking of paid holidays.
In addition, unions will work to achieve an 1800-hour work year by 2005 based on the “Principles for Shorter Working Hours to Realize an 1800-Hour Working Year” which was endorsed at the Central Executive Committee Meeting on October 2001. Unions will formulate plans for shorter working hours tailored to real business conditions and advance activities to improve labor agreements starting where ever it is possible to do so through labor-management review committees or other such organs.
|
|
