`Labor Reform` - amendment of Labor law in ordinary parliament in 2018 in Japan

In this presentation, I will look at the background of Japanese "Labor Reform", discussions in the process of submission of relevant legislation and the contents of the most recently passed "labor reform" law. First, there was a long-term employment practice that guarantees full-time and full-time employment for regular workers in Japan after the Second World War. However, since 1990, worsening economic situation has increased the number of irregular workers and the gap between working conditions and the long working hours between the workers made it impossible to sustain economic growth, which became the background of labor reform. During the process of submitting the `Labor Reform` bill, the `Labor Reform Realization Conference` was set up to publicize the `Labor Reform Implementation Plan` to solve various labor market problems including `gap` and `long working hours`. In addition, at the Labor Policy Council, it was suggested such as the upper limit of overtime work, the regulation of the same work and the same wage, and the strengthening of the industrial health function following the Labor Reform Implementation Plan. Based on this, in September, 2017, the Japanese government published the "Labor Reform" proposal for submitting the "Labor Reform" bill to the Parliament. The main contents of the labor reform legislation are ① revision of labor hours regulation according to the Labor Standards Act (restriction of overtime work hours, revision of premium wage for over 60 hours of overtime work for SMEs, promotion of annual paid leave, revision of the time (free working hours) system, establishment of the high-level professional system, expansion of the scope of the discretionary work subject to the planning task), ② addition of the provisions of the employer`s responsibility for the working time interval system ③strengthening industrial physicians and occupational health functions in accordance with the amendment of the Labor Safety and Sanitation Act and ④ revising regulations to eliminate the unreasonable treatment gap between regular and irregular workers. Considering the contents of this reform in the future, it is necessary to review desirable working time management and to improve the disparity between regular and irregular workers. It will be the aim of labor reform to improve the conditions of irregular workers and to raise wages. 本発表では, 日本"働き方改革"の背景, 関連法案が提出された過程での議論及び最終的に可決された"働き方改革"の関連法の内容を見てみよう. まず, 働き方改革の背景についてみると, 第2次世界大戦以降, 日本で正規職労働者に終身雇用と年功序列制を保障する長期雇用慣行があったが, 1990年代以降, 経済状況の悪化で非正規職労働者が増加し, 正規職労働者と非正規職労働者間の労働条件の格差と長時間労働で持続的な経済成長ができなくなり, これが働き方改革の背景となった."働き方改革"法案の提出過程中, "働き方改革実現会議"を設置し, "格差"や"長時間労働"問題を含む様々な労働市場の問題を解決するための"働き方改革実行計画"を公表した.続いて労働政策審議会において, 時間外労働の上限規制, 同一労働と同一賃金に関する法整備, 働き方改革実行計画に従った産業保健機能の強化などが建議された. これを基に, 2017年9月, 日本政府は, 「働き方改革」関連法案を国会に提出するための「働き方改革」要綱を公表した. 働き方改革関連法の主な内容は, ①労働基準法に基づく労働時間規制に関する改正(時間外労働の上限規制は, 中小企業の月の60時間を超える勤務時間外労働に対する割増賃金の改定, 年次有給休暇の取得の促進, フレックスタイム(自由勤務時間)制の改正, 高度専門家制度の創設, 企画業務型裁量労働制対象範囲の拡大),②労働時間等の設定改善法における勤務時間インターバル制度の事業主の責務規定の追加③労働安全衛生法の改正に伴う産業医・産業保健機能の強化④正規職と非正規職の不合理な待遇格差を解消するための規定の整備等を含んだ. 今後, この改革内容を考慮し, 望ましい労働時間管理を検討すると同時に, 正社員と非正規職との待遇格差を改善しなければならず, 非正規職の労働条件を改善して賃金を引き上げるのが働き方改革の趣旨だろう.