1. Human Resource Management Keiichiro HAMAGUCHI

2. Chapter 3Section 4Assignment, Transfers and Disciplinary Action

3. (1) Promotion • Promotion from within the company: • Regular workers are assigned to different jobs rotating regularly and are gradually promoted to certain levels. • Almost all managers are promoted within the same company. • Even blue-collar workers experience job rotation and promotion to lower management at the workshop.

4. (2) Transfers within Single Company (Haiten) • Flexible deployment of workers through transfers: Haiten, Shukko and Tenseki • The purposes of Haiten are: • To improve abilities by experiencing various jobs, • To increase blue-collar workers’ understanding of production process, • To guarantee equal opportunity and fair evaluation for workers, and • To avoid economic dismissals in restructuring

5. (a) Abuse of the Right to Transfer • With the increase of working couples, regional transfers have been contested. • Supreme Court takes hard line in Toa Paint case and Teikoku Hormone case, saying that “the disadvantage is a normal inconvenience which workers should accept and endure.” • Nissan Murayama Plant case denied job specification and allowed flexible deployment. • This attitude reflects the necessity of transfers to maintain long-term employment.

6. (3) Transfers to another Company (Shukko) • Shukko: transfer of a worker to another company maintaining the employment relationship with the original company • The purposes of Shukko are: (1)to train young workers, (2)to shore up subsidiary, (3)to avoid economic dismissals, and (4)to absorb redundant older workers. • Long-term employment practice is secured no longer within single company but within group. • In practice, shukko is treated same way as haiten.

7. (4) Transfers to another Company (Tenseki) • Tenseki: transfer of a worker and his employment status to another company (Original employment contract is terminated and new relationship is established.) • Tenseki is a outplacement service carried out by the employer. • Tenseki requires individual consent of workers.

8. (5) Mergers and Transfers of Undertakings • In mergers, all rights and duties are automatically transferred to acquiring company including employment relations. • In transfers of undertakings, employment relations may or may not transferred according to transfer contract (irrespective of workers’ will). • Japan has no legislation on this issue, but some lower court decisions protect excluded workers.

9. (6) Succession of Employment Relations under the Company Division • 2000 Labor Contract Succession Law protect workers engaging mainly separated division from exclusion. • But this does not apply transfers of undertakings. • Unlike European societies, Japan lacks specific jobs, and automatic transfer of workers with jobs is difficult.

10. (7) Equal Treatment on Assignment and Promotion • 1997 revised EEOL prohibited any discrimination in assignment and promotion against women. • 2006 Bill for EEOL (under discussion in the Diet) is to extend the scope to allocation of duties and granting authority.

11. (8) Long-term Employment and Disciplinary Measures • Japanese companies take various disciplinary measures because dismissals for misconducts are strictly limited. • Japanese companies take even informal punitive measures which is difficult to distinguish from job-related orders.

12. (9) Types of Disciplinary Measures • Reprimands (Kenseki) and Warnings (Kaikoku): to admonish a worker for his misconduct • Wage Decreases (Genkyu): may not exceed 10% of total wage. • Suspension (Shukkin Teishi) • Demotion (Kokaku) • Disciplinary Discharge: without notice and severance pay

13. (10) Grounds for Disciplinary Measures • Violation of Job-related Order (including transfers, overtime or holiday work): Refusing overtime order constitutes ground for disciplinary discharge (Hitachi Ltd. Case). • Falsification of One’s Past Record • Misconduct in One’s Private Life • Dual Jobs • Violation of Enterprise Order (such as prohibition of political activities)

14. (11) Appropriateness of Disciplinary Measures • Disciplinary actions can be nullified if found to be abuses of rights. • Disciplinary punishment must be proportionate. • Due process is required such as opportunity to explain and defend worker’s acts.