TOKYO (Reuters) – Nearly three-quarters of Japanese companies have no plans to offer blanket-based pay rounds at this year’s “shunto” labor talks, with two-thirds keeping wages flat or cutting them as a pandemic coronavirus spread earns hard, Reuters poll finds.
In a sign labor costs are plummeting profits, three out of five companies will keep the number of employees flat in the next financial year, while a quarter plan to raise headcounts and plan 17 % for the cut, the Corporate Audit showed.
Many companies in a Feb. 2-12 poll eliminated uniform coin payment costs out of the question as a result of declining profits and future uncertainty amid the pandemic . And those who stick to pay rises will do so to retain a young and skilled workforce.
“We will not raise a basic payment until we can avoid rising cost factors at a time when we cannot even anticipate the future,” a steelmaker’s manager wrote in the study.
The manager of a paper and pulp manufacturer wrote: “We will do it to secure new employees and keep young workers from changing jobs.”
The prospects for difficult labor talks may encourage trade unions to prioritize job security over wage increases, weakening the move towards rising private spending that makes up more than half of all. economy.
The Corporate Review, conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research, stopped 482 large and medium-sized non-financial Japanese corporations on an anonymous condition because they can express ideas more freely. Managers from around 220 companies responded.
Government data showed last week that wages fell 1.2% in 2020, with overtime pay falling 12%, as a coronavirus crisis and loops on economic activity led to have closed or cut off hours and bars to prevent the virus.
Japan’s largest business lobbyist, Keidanren, has dismissed labor demand for a blanket pay rise as “impractical” for companies affected by pandemics, and labor groups led by Rengo, co. -shadow union federation, called for basic uniform pay rates of 2%.
Large companies offered pay cycles of 2% or more each spring for seven straight years last year, with the government pressuring businesses to encourage payment to overcome the downturn which has held Japan for two decades.
However, the effect of coronavirus may have reversed that.
Japanese companies have recently embarked on a more diversified approach to wages, with more and more companies moving to merit-based rather than high-wage-based wages to provide young, skilled workers. attract.
The continuing trend marks structural changes in Japan’s labor market, with around 40% of workers part-time lower paid and contract workers – twice what was seen in 1990 .
Reciting with Tetsushi Kajimoto; Edited by Sam Holmes