Abstract
After the mid-1990s, Japanese economy experienced a switch in its global development framework and decisive change came about in its system of ‘permanent employment’ and seniority-based wages. Faced with global mega-competition, managers launched restructuring initiatives that included performance-oriented compensation. Such restructuring cause considerable job losses among middle-aged workers, and sometimes created atypical employees instead of regular staff members. Owing to the new performance orientation, many regular workers suffered stressful working conditions and increased working hours, which led to mental heath problems in some cases. The Japanese results-oriented system allows management to determine individual wages according to objectives met and assessed merit, a one-sided personnel evaluation that diminishes the role of collective bargaining, not just in wage negotiation but in terms of overall democracy in labour. Although Japanese big enterprise unions are apt to look positively towards a company's benefit, recently managements have been keen to determine working conditions not by collective bargaining but by labour-management committees. Moreover, the growing numbers of atypical workers, detached from job security, living wages and union eligibility, decrease union organization rate, further reducing the social position of unions. These are elements indicative of a crisis in labour democracy that demands prompt attention.
Published Version
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