My opinion of this week(531)：
Unfair labor practice: Instruction to return summer bonus
Kiyoshi Murase, Director General of Social Insurance Agency, said to all management people and workers in the Agency to return some parts of summer bonus paid to them recently to show their feeling of sorry for misconducts happened in their office. Most of top and middle management people and some workers followed to the instruction. Some workers refrain from returning bonus for it should be done only on a voluntary basis.
In connection with this move, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Secretary General of Abe Cabinet issued a statement yesterday at the news conference. He said the new born organization will not rehire any of those old workers who refused to follow the instruction to return some parts of summer bonus at this time. According to the plan to reform the Agency, all employees will be fired at once without any exception. The new agency would rehire some of those old employees if they are good all right. They would not rehire some of those who are were found out no good. Shiozaki indicated this stance.
I already pointed out that that kind of procedures itself to fire all people when they dissolve the Agency involves some problem. It may against to some fundamental labor laws in Japan which define some basic right of workers concerning employment. How can they fire all workers in the agency at once without any specific reason? How are all general workers in the Agency are responsible for what happened in various stages of failures in their organization? I wrote about this doubt in my BLOG on June 24.
For argument sake, let assume that the Agency Reform Law which was passed at the diet at this time justifies the action to fire all workers at once in connection with the disorganization of the Agency.
Is it justified to make it a rule to decide some are rehired and some are not. More specifically, Secretary General Shiozaki meant to say that some one who returned summer bonus would be rehired but some who did not return bonus would not be hired.
I was quite surprised to read this comment. His statement is obviously very wrong. What he said is against the very important principle of labor laws. His statement forced workers to follow very unfair condition to keep employment in a organization. It seems to be a typical example of unfair labor practice from my point of view.
I believe Shiozaki's statement will present a serious argument in coming election in July. I do hope there will be many appropriate criticism against series of mismanagement by Abe Cabinet on this critical issue concerning the disorganization of Social Insurance Agency.
2007/6/30
Tadashi HAYASE
Friday, June 29, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
A concrete idea of Pension Record Book
My opinion of this week(529):
The election of House of Representative will be made soon in July. Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party of Japan announced their manifestoes for coming election and are now preparing to win the election based on their manifestoes.
Manifesto did play much importance in the general election of last fall due to former Prime Minister Koizumi's poor election style in which only privatization of post office became a key issue for the election.
Pension plan was one very important issues as well to be debated in the last election but the issue was not discussed so much due to Koizumi's election tactics. That was very unfortunate thing about Japanese politics and for Japanese people.
Several serious problems on recording system of pension plan have been disclosed recently. More than 50 million pension records are missing at the office of Social Insurance Agency. Several other serious problems have been disclosed one after another and the basic revision of pension plan and their management system become one most important issue for coming election.
Tow major parties are now asked to present their manifestoes on this issue in some what concrete way. Any general and abstract approach on pension issues will not be accepted by people at this time.
Since pension recording issues were disclosed, the reaction and counter measures Abe Cabinet and ruling parties took were not necessarily quite appropriate. They said they would question the responsibility of successive ministers of Welfare Ministry in the past including Naoto Kan, deputy president of Democratic Party of
Japan. They also criticized workers' morale and working style in the Agency insisting that is another background for such poor office management in the Agency.
Without talking much about the responsibility of poor management,they blamed public labor union exists in the Agency. All ruling front tried to do is to transfer their administrative and management responsibility to someone else such as successive ministers of Welfare Ministry and labor union in the Agency. It doesn't make sense.
Abe Cabinet and ruling front submitted the bill to dissolve the Social Insurance Agency suggesting to make a new privatized organization. Opposition fronts including Democratic Party of Japan opposed the bill insisting that that will not solve any basic recording problems. Majority of people of Japan seem to think the same way according to the recent public vote. They are looking for some good and concrete answer for this complicated and serious issues.
The creation of Pension Record Book replacing the present Pension Book suggested by DPJ in manifesto seems to be a good concrete answer in this respect. The new book for all participants of pension plan records all payment records of insurance fees and all receiving records of pension later on. It is something like deposit book people have for bank accounts.
I believe this is really a good idea to be introduced to avoid any further confusion in the future. In along with the introduction of such pension management system, it is absolutely necessary to revise the present pension scheme basically.
It is requested that the total grand design concerning pension plan is argued thoroughly in the coming election in July. This may be last chance for this country to make a good pension plan in the long run.
2007/6/16
Tadashi HAYASE
The election of House of Representative will be made soon in July. Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party of Japan announced their manifestoes for coming election and are now preparing to win the election based on their manifestoes.
Manifesto did play much importance in the general election of last fall due to former Prime Minister Koizumi's poor election style in which only privatization of post office became a key issue for the election.
Pension plan was one very important issues as well to be debated in the last election but the issue was not discussed so much due to Koizumi's election tactics. That was very unfortunate thing about Japanese politics and for Japanese people.
Several serious problems on recording system of pension plan have been disclosed recently. More than 50 million pension records are missing at the office of Social Insurance Agency. Several other serious problems have been disclosed one after another and the basic revision of pension plan and their management system become one most important issue for coming election.
Tow major parties are now asked to present their manifestoes on this issue in some what concrete way. Any general and abstract approach on pension issues will not be accepted by people at this time.
Since pension recording issues were disclosed, the reaction and counter measures Abe Cabinet and ruling parties took were not necessarily quite appropriate. They said they would question the responsibility of successive ministers of Welfare Ministry in the past including Naoto Kan, deputy president of Democratic Party of
Japan. They also criticized workers' morale and working style in the Agency insisting that is another background for such poor office management in the Agency.
Without talking much about the responsibility of poor management,they blamed public labor union exists in the Agency. All ruling front tried to do is to transfer their administrative and management responsibility to someone else such as successive ministers of Welfare Ministry and labor union in the Agency. It doesn't make sense.
Abe Cabinet and ruling front submitted the bill to dissolve the Social Insurance Agency suggesting to make a new privatized organization. Opposition fronts including Democratic Party of Japan opposed the bill insisting that that will not solve any basic recording problems. Majority of people of Japan seem to think the same way according to the recent public vote. They are looking for some good and concrete answer for this complicated and serious issues.
The creation of Pension Record Book replacing the present Pension Book suggested by DPJ in manifesto seems to be a good concrete answer in this respect. The new book for all participants of pension plan records all payment records of insurance fees and all receiving records of pension later on. It is something like deposit book people have for bank accounts.
I believe this is really a good idea to be introduced to avoid any further confusion in the future. In along with the introduction of such pension management system, it is absolutely necessary to revise the present pension scheme basically.
It is requested that the total grand design concerning pension plan is argued thoroughly in the coming election in July. This may be last chance for this country to make a good pension plan in the long run.
2007/6/16
Tadashi HAYASE
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)