Proper Election of the OIST Employee Rep OISTにおける従業員代表制の適正化を
- oistfsa
- Feb 23, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 24, 2019
On 23 January, 2019, Dr. Steve Aird wrote to OIST Human Resources to declare his candidacy for the position of Employee Representative, since the term of the previous representative expired in October, 2018. HR had neglected to announce renewal of the position. On 28 January, HR attempted to avoid the issue, saying, that it didn’t anticipate any need for the Employee Representative until October, 2019 when it might require the Rep’s comments and signature on an overtime agreement.
In an article published in the Japan Times (see link), Prof. Hifumi Okunuki, Executive Chair of the Tozen Union, an amalgamated union in Tokyo and a member of Rengo Tokyo, explained the role of the Employee Representative.
“A democratically elected rep is every worker's legal right”
According to Prof. Okunuki, in corporations with labor unions having less than half the employees as members, approval of the Employee Rep is required before the institution enacts or changes policies such as, but not limited to the following:
1. Forced transfer of a portion of wages into a personal savings account.
2. Wage deductions other than those permitted in the LSA (which are shakai hoken health and pension insurance, and income taxes).
3. Flextime
4. Exemption from laws obliging that breaks be taken by all employees at the same time.
5. Overtime and work on holidays.
6. Management fixing the dates of all but five of workers’ legally guaranteed paid holidays (workers ordinarily can freely choose when they take paid holidays, but with this system they can only freely choose five among the paid holidays accorded by the LSA).
7. Conversion of paid holidays from days into blocks of hours.
The Employee Representative is also responsible to nominate a member to the institutional Health and Safety Committee, which promotes and manages safety of its workers.
A review of the previous Employee Rep election at OIST revealed that in an announcement sent to all of OIST on 13 October, 2016, HR undermined the role of the Employee Representative by not disseminating enough information about its duties and responsibilities.
Therefore, OFSA calls on HR to promptly announce the need for new elections so that others may become candidates to serve as the Employee Rep. Then a meeting with all prospective candidates should be scheduled to discuss how and when elections will be held, and how ballots will be counted. This must be done in a genuinely open and transparent manner worthy of the trust of OIST employees.
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