In a move that could affect this spring's labor-management wage talks, the Daihatsu Motor Co. group's labor union is considering demanding a pay-scale hike of at least 1 percent, sources said Wednesday.
This is the first numerical request to be heard from the auto industry and will be finalized next Tuesday by the Daihatsu labor federation, which consists of about 25,000 employees, the sources said.
Industry leader Toyota Motor Corp.'s labor federation is on course to request a basic wage increase without a specific figure. Daihatsu is a group company of Toyota, but the two companies' labor federations act separately.
Daihatsu's union has decided to take advantage of the minicar maker's record first-half group sales of ¥900 billion for the April-September period in seeking that the average monthly wage be raised by at least 1 percent, the sources said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked companies to raise salaries in exchange for government stimulus measures, including tax breaks and deregulation to boost investment.
Keidanren urges raises
JIJI
A Keidanren committee adopted a draft Wednesday of guidelines for this spring's "shunto" wage talks that show tolerance for pay-scale hikes.
The move is important because Keidanren is the nation's biggest business lobby and counts many huge companies among its members.
While noting that wage levels should be decided by reflecting management's payment capabilities in principle, the draft, endorsed by the Management and Labor Policy Committee, says firms capable of distributing the benefits of improved earnings to employees should consider various methods to realize wage hikes.
Methods different than those adopted in the past several years should be options, it says, effectively signaling Keidanren's tolerance of pay-scale hikes.