Role Of Unions In Employment Relations In Japan And South Korea

Compare and contrast the role that unions play in the system of employment relations in Japan with the role that unions play in the system of employment relations in South Korea.

Comparison of the Role of the Unions in Japan and South Korea

Unions play a key role in resolving the workplace issues by acting as a voice for the employees and acting as a negotiating representative from the part of the employees. Apart from this there are also other kind of key features. This includes, working with management to help resolve all the issues in the workplace, acting as an advocate for all the different employees, ensuring the avoidance of different breaches including workplace laws, discrimination laws and many others as such. Employment relations are one of the main processes that helps the employers and the employees to stay connected and have a clear and transparent idea of each other’s demands. The following essay is based on the comparison of the role of the unions in employment relations in two different Asian countries. One of the selected countries is Japan and the other one being South Korea. The essay will highlight all the different features and characteristics of the unions present in this country and how does they establish the relations and negotiate different kinds of bargaining related to employee matters with the employers. The report will also highlight the similarities and the differences between the procedures of their engagement styles. The following inclusions will help the essay to be more compact and strong in nature.

The first case that will be discussed will be the role of union in employment relations of Japan. The introduction to Japanese trade union culture will be started with the history of employment relations in Japan. The employment relationship in Japan can be mentioned and discussed mainly by means of Societal bargaining, Organizational bargaining and workplace control along with relations with authorities.

Earlier in societal bargaining the contract that was signed used to be of a non limited term contract and there was restriction on the dismissal of the workers. The Labor Standards Act, of Article No 36 was used for overtime agreement (Benassi & Vlandas, 2016). On the other hand there was strict regulation on mobility and the presence of a corporate centered culture helped the cause of both the employers and the employees. The seniority list was basically prepared on the basis of Capability and there was an absence of any sort of job description at the beginning (Doucette & Kang, 2018). The companies provided organizational citizenship to the employees of the organizations. However, as time evolved a number of different revolutionary changes took shape in the form of all these three factors. The market saw the establishment of non regular employment and saw the discontinuation of working time for the employees in the companies. There was also an expanding labor market that involved the temporary work for different skilled and unskilled labors. apart from this the following period also saw the increase of the non regular contracts, decoupling of working time from wage determination and the diversification of different types of employment forms.

Role of Unions in Employment Relations in Japan

As seen from the above mentioned facts the advent of time saw a totally different Japan in the labor union movement period. This period saw early industrialization and was based mainly on the likes of the establishment of the different kinds of factories and business units. The most unique element of Japanese unions is the presence of Enterprise unionism rather than crafts unionism and industrial unionism (McBride, Hebson & Holgate, 2015). The Japanese labor movement is totally dominated by different kinds of enterprise unions which generally differ from that of the industrial unions in different ways. The enterprise based unions organize the employees of a given company rather than the occupation or the industry (Benassi & Vlandas, 2016). The Japanese union system can also be said to be co-operative in nature as because they are generally based on three different tiers namely, enterprise unionism, lifetime employment and seniority based wages. The following can also be divided accordingly by means of widespread bonus agreements and promotion facilities especially where the job security is tremendously high. Therefore such kind of tasks generally occurs in areas of high secured jobs and different kinds of other jobs required for the likes of the public relations and zones in employment process (McBride, Hebson & Holgate, 2015). The uniqueness of Japanese unions is generally due to its pivotal role towards the organizations. Unions are generally classified within the limits of one firm. Such kinds of union systems are described as enterprise based union system. These union systems can be developed under a three tier system where at the bottom the employees are organized into different kinds of enterprise unions that represent a corresponding industry. These kinds of concentration on such issues that are based on the promotion, wage rates, workplace safety and retirement have some common types of aspects. This includes;

1. Membership is restricted to only the regular workers and the temporary workers are excluded from receiving membership
2. Both blue as well as the white collared employees belongs to the same union. This is mainly because there is only one main union in the organization.
3. The officers of the union who are in charge to control the activities of the union are regular employees of the particular organization.

The absence of other unions in the workforce can be both beneficial as well as can create problems for the employees in the organization. The advantages are as follows;

1. The presence of only one union will help make the negotiation process easier and fast
2. The presence of regular officers of the union as the workforce of the company helps to achieve the desired results much more easily

The disadvantages of the following process are as follows;

1. The absence of any other union in the office will help the employers as there will be no such hardcore protests
2. The presence of the regular workers can be sometimes a problem as the employers may suppress them easily by engaging in unfair practices like bribing them.

The second case that will be discussed will feature the role of the unions in South Korea. The comparison between the Japanese and the South Korean unions will clearly show the differences. South Korean firms are from a long time leaned more towards the HR decisions that are based on seniority levels and are based on the policy of compensation and job assignment. This factor enables the role of the particular person than the main job done by the person (Benassi & Vlandas, 2016). Apart from this there are also efforts being carried out to analyze the viability of carrying out skill based pay and job based pay in addition to seniority based pay steps of the organization. This also includes the likes of the reduction in the approaches to reduce the proportion of the fixed salary in favor of expanding the performance related variable pay that fluctuates according to the productivity of the organizations. The trade unions and each of their activities or tasks continues to increase their focus on the regular workers. The focus is generally on the skills, their basic salaries, other needed items and many more as such. In sharp contrast to the union system of Japan the Union system of South Korea was rather simple and unified in nature. However, the occurrence of multiple disputes forced the Government along with the organizations to allow the formation of multiple unions within the organization that led to the success of the following structure.

Role of Unions in Employment Relations in South Korea

A difference again comes in the forefront here when comparing the unions of Japan and that of South Korea. The unions of Japan are more lenient towards the supreme authority or the management of the organization (Kim & Van Der Westhuizen, 2018). However, the unions present in the different organizations of South Korea are totally different as they are well known for their militant nature. They fight for their rights even if they are regular workers with the following organizations. One of the major type of Union in South Korea are the Industry based and enterprise based unions which is a significant development in union organization. According to, Tapia, Ibsen & Kochan (2015) this type of unions opens up their membership quota for the directly employed non regular workers in the office. There are many such different kinds of unions in the following country which includes Korean taxi workers Union, KCTU Union for hospital workers and many more as such. The main roles of the unions in South Korea are to reduce the social welfare, ensuring the correct implementation of the pensions and different health care benefits for the people working in different organizations that includes both skilled and unskilled employees. Apart from this there are lots of other different tasks as performed by the unions which include the likes of staff positioning, staff maintenance and other secondary activities. However, the most primary activity remains wage negotiation, fair job appraisal, fair scheme of promotions, avoidance of unethical practices to get promotion, helping the employees in legal needs and many others as such. Every union is concerned with collective bargaining and daily routine activities (Stockhammer, 2017).

An employee who gets into trouble first seeks consultation with the union leaders and the union members and then they finally approach the people who are heads of the departments or any senior supervisors. This shows the importance of unions in the organizational set up of the Companies in South Korea. The presence of a strong and unified union is the main feature of the South Korean unions. A proper coordination of the employers and the unions is utmost necessary for the success of the business organization and helps to avoid any dispute and lead to a better productivity (Doucette & Kang, 2018). As seen in the study by, Ibsen & Tapia (2017) earlier the union leaders had an attitude of disrespect towards the employees in South Korea. However the changing times has totally changed the perception of the union management. As of now the union leaders are engaged in more meetings and talking with the employees which help to understand their crisis and problems and raise the issues in front of the employers of the mentioned organization (Tapia, Ibsen & Kochan, 2015). The establishment of different types of Labor management councils is an important step taken by the authorities in South Korea. The LMC will consist of the representatives of the trade union, other persons appointed by the council and some other people from the organization. These LMC”s serves a unique role in the establishment of the business organization and makes it one of the most successful programs of the business.

Differences Between Unions in Japan and South Korea

Thus considering the above mentioned points there were many differences in the role of the unions in Japan and South Korea. Firstly, Japan follows strictly the enterprise based unionism while South Korea used to follow it but have discontinued the following due to different concerns. Secondly the employees in Japan have the opportunity to speak directly to the officers of the union whereas in South Korea such a phenomenon does not happen too often and most of the times there are meetings between the employees and the union officers. LMC’s are present in South Korea whereas LMC’s are not present in Japan.

Conclusion

The following essay has provided all the details regarding the role of unions in Japan and South Korea. The essay has provided the necessary information regarding the structure of the unions of both these Asian Countries and has presented a clear picture of the implementation of the particular type of union culture. The analysis of the main body of the essay will provide the readers with the main role of the unions and the way they perform in the workplace. The essay has also included a short portion about the disadvantage faced by the employees of different organizations in Japan due to nepotism. However a sharp comparison of two of these different styles of Union Culture will mainly reveal the main features and role that the unions play in these two countries to ensure the well being and legal and administrative safety of the employees.

References

Benassi, C., & Vlandas, T. (2016). Union inclusiveness and temporary agency workers: The role of power resources and union ideology. European journal of industrial relations, 22(1), 5-22.

Benassi, C., & Vlandas, T. (2016). Union inclusiveness and temporary agency workers: The role of power resources and union ideology. European journal of industrial relations, 22(1), 5-22.

Doucette, J., & Kang, S. (2018). Legal geographies of labour and postdemocracy: Reinforcing non?standard work in South Korea. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 43(2), 200-214.

Hall, P. A. (2018). Varieties of capitalism in light of the euro crisis. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(1), 7-30.

Ibsen, C. L., & Tapia, M. (2017). Trade union revitalisation: Where are we now? Where to next?. Journal of Industrial Relations, 59(2), 170-191.

Kim, Y., & Van Der Westhuizen, J. (2018). Corporatism as a Crisis Response to Democratisation? Comparing the Rise and Fall of Corporatism in South Korea and South Africa. Politikon, 45(2), 291-308.

McBride, A., Hebson, G., & Holgate, J. (2015). Intersectionality: are we taking enough notice in the field of work and employment relations?. Work, employment and society, 29(2), 331-341.

Stockhammer, E. (2017). Determinants of the wage share: a panel analysis of advanced and developing economies. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 55(1), 3-33.

Tapia, M., Ibsen, C. L., & Kochan, T. A. (2015). Mapping the frontier of theory in industrial relations: the contested role of worker representation. Socio-Economic Review, 13(1), 157-184.

Valizade, D., Ogbonnaya, C., Tregaskis, O., & Forde, C. (2016). A mutual gains perspective on workplace partnership: Employee outcomes and the mediating role of the employment relations climate. Human Resource Management Journal, 26(3), 351-368.