Labor unions of Hitachi and other major Japanese electronics companies on Thursday demanded a monthly pay scale hike of a record ¥17,000 in their shuntō spring labor talks.
The companies are scheduled to give responses to the requests on March 12.
The focus is on whether employers will agree to raise pay significantly as in recent years to ensure that wages rise faster than prices.
Susumu Takimoto, a Hitachi executive in charge of domestic human resources, said the company is fully aware of the importance of sustaining large wage increases.
“We will improve working conditions this year as well,” Takimoto said.
This is the 12th straight year that labor unions of major electronics firms have demanded pay scale hikes.
The unions customarily negotiate in a unified manner by aligning wage raise demands and their schedule for talks with management, aiming to win positive responses.
But since 2020, the unions have accepted some differences in responses as long as they reach a certain level, as business operations and financial performances differ for each company.
In last year’s shuntō talks, responses from 11 of 12 firms except Sharp in the industry fully met their labor unions’ requests for a pay scale hike of ¥13,000.
