The functions and limits of entreprise unions in individual labor disputes

Activities of enterprise unions may contribute to reducing various types of dissatisfaction and complaints of workers but cannot necessarily result in reducing the number of individual labor disputes that come to light. We should rather focus on the qualitative aspects of such individual labor disputes. From this viewpoint, I will first review the activities of enterprise unions, which engage in grasping various types of dissatisfaction and complaints of union members, so that these members will not have to leave their jobs, endure hardship, and finally initiate disputes. These activities, which enterprise unions carry out as their regular services, function as a means available to workers for voicing complaints to their employers. Meanwhile, the great majority of small and medium-sized enterprises do not have such in-house unions. In view of this situation, I will recommend the effective implementation of the system of representatives of the majority of workers, as an organ in charge of preventing individual labor disputes and grasping various types of dissatisfaction and complaints among workers at the workplace where there is no enterprise union.