Tuesday, April 04, 2017, 15:00 - 16:00

The confederation's views on PM Abe's "work-style reforms" featuring a cap on overtime work

Language: The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation.

 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative government has set down the framework of his much touted "work-style reform" featuring a cap on overtime work -- 100 hours per month during the busiest season -- a level still widely seen extremely hazardous to human health, on the basis of a compromise between Japan's big-business lobby Keidanren and main labor confederation Rengo in mid-March.

The FCCJ has invited Rikio Kozu, president of Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, to offer his views on the projected work-style reform in the middle of springtime labor-management wage negotiations. Abe's plan also seeks to ensure equal treatment between full-time regular workers and temporary "irregular" workers who make up nearly 40 percent of the country's workforce. The reform plan is due to be incorporated into bills and be presented to parliament later in the year.

Kozu may also give us insight into Rengo's political affiliation after his confederation endorsed a losing candidate, who favored the restart of a nuclear power plant and was supported by Abe's conservative Liberal Democratic Party, in Niigata Prefecture's gubernatorial election last year, deviating from its traditional alliance with the center-left Democratic Party. Kozu told the media Rengo continues to support the Democratic Party, currently the main opposition force, and that safe nuclear reactors can be temporarily utilized in the process of Japan weaning itself from nuclear energy.

Rengo, launched in 1989 with the merger of rivaling labor confederations, now claims a membership of 6.9 million workers, accounting for 12 percent of employed people in Japan where 17 percent of the workforce is organized. A Tokyo University graduate, Kozu started his trade union career in 1984 when he became an executive of the Nippon Steel Corp. workers' union. He served as Rengo's general secretary from 2013 to 2015 when he was appointed its president.

 

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Professional Activities Committee

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