Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

NAGUMO Speaks!
Report of Examination Commission on Labor-Management Relations System: “Toward Measures for an Autonomous Labor-Management Relations System”

1. On 15 December, the Examination Commission on the Labor-Management Relations System set up in the Headquarters for Promotion of Reforms of Public Service System in the Cabinet Secretariat put together a report titled “Toward Measures for an Autonomous Labor-Management Relations System” and submitted it today to Minister Mr. Sengoku in charge of the reform issues of the public service system. In taking steps for an autonomous labor-management relations system in the public service on the basis of the Basic Law on the Reform of the National Public Service System which had been enacted by the consent of both ruling and opposition parties, the report refers to what had been examined in the Commission from many angles on the system in case of granting the right to collective agreement to the public employees who are not now granted the right to collective agreement. RENGO appreciates that a plan of the system on the premise of granting the right to collective agreement was shown for the first time from the government commission.
   
   
2. The report is not to decide a conclusion on a plan of the whole picture of an autonomous labor-management relations system in the public service, but to show “optional model cases”. In concrete, three models are indicated: one case which is similar to the labor legislations in the private sector which places importance on the agreement between labor and management; the other case in which the agreement between labor and management on the premise of the basic principles of the existing public service system is respected; and another case which puts importance on the Diet involvement and special characteristics of public employees. The Report also says that “the Commission is not in the position to recommend exclusively any one of them” or that “the option for systematization is not narrowed down to the three cases”. Therefore, what and how the future system should be will be entrusted to the government judge.
   
   
3. Meanwhile, RENGO has demanded to establish an internationally acceptable labor-management relations system in the public service along the ILO standards. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) also specified in its election manifesto that “through recovering basic trade union rights for the public employees, a mechanism will be worked out to determine their salaries by negotiations between labor and management as in the case of private sector”. To establish in Japan a labor-management relations system in the public service along the international labor standards will have a far-reaching influence upon the reforms in the Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, the government should carry out reforms to realize the manifesto without delay.
   
   
4. From now on, RENGO will demand the government to draw up a plan of overall picture of the system and to draft related bills as rapidly as possible. At the same time, RENGO will continue to demand the government to examine how the responsible national personnel authority should be and how the right to organize and the right to strike as well should be, which had been left behind in the last deliberation of the Examination Commission. RENGO will also continue to work on building the same labor-management relations system in the public service as in the private sector, as well as on establishing a transparent and democratic public service system