Human Resource Management

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Human Resource Management

• Keiichiro HAMAGUCHI

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

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(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

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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

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(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 Ones Past Record
• Misconduct in Ones Private Life
• Dual Jobs
• Violation of Enterprise Order (such as
  prohibition of political activities)

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(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 workers acts.