Dispute resolution systems in the workplace: a study relating to their establishment and support

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of labor disputes, particularly disputes involving individual cases, an increase reflected in a corresponding increase both in the numbers having resort to the One-stop Worker Consultation Corners in Prefectural Labor Bureaus and also in cases brought before the civil courts. A variety of factors are responsible: the lengthening and the deepening of the recession following the bursting of the asset bubble; increasing labor market competition, both at home and from abroad; the increasing diversity of forms of employment and the changes in the traditional Japanese employment system characterized by long-term employment and nenko (seniority-constrained) pay and promotion systems. But one aspect is certainly that the functioning of in-house grievance processing systems has declined and more complaints are being brought out into the open. This situation prompted The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (JILPT) to mount its project for “Research into the institutionalization of, and support for, workplace dispute resolution systems,” spread over two years, 2006 and 2007. The project has conducted interviews and questionnaire research with both labor and employer representatives in Japan, undertaken field work overseas (in US, Britain, France and Germany) including interviewing experts in the identification of and training in dispute-resolution skills. It has also sought to define the systems of dispute resolution that employers and labor should seek to establish and the policies by which such systems can be promoted and diffused. This paper provides a summary of the project’s conclusions. 2