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＜第７９回　WORKSHOP報告（３月２２日） / 参加者７２名＞

 

（１：この日は６名の新人の方が参加されました）

 

（２：WORKSHOPが始まります！）

 

 

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《　今回のworkshop　》

 

○workshop参加人数：７２名（うち新人の方：６名）

 

○【前半】：”Talk About Pets”

 

○【後半】：”Will abolishing nonregular workers would be a plus factor for Japanese employment situation?”というテーマでディスカッション

 

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＜英語サークル　E’s club　第７９回workshopのご案内＞

 

みなさまこんにちは、E’s club幹事のKです。第７９回workshopの詳細をお送りいたします。

 

今回は前半のマテリアルをTさん、後半のマテリアルをKさんにそれぞれご作成いただきました。

前 半は”Talk About Pets”、後半は”Will abolishing nonregular workers would be a plus factor for Japanese employment situation?”というテーマでそれぞれディスカッションを行ないます。

 

[今週のマテリアル]

 

＜FIRST HALF＞

「Talk About Pets」

マテリアルを担当させて頂くTです。よろしくお願い致します。

今回は「ペット」をテーマにしました。近年、ペットの家族が進み単なるペットではなく家族の一員として犬や猫を飼う人が増加していると思います。

最近では、ペットに遺産を遺したいという方も多くその要望に対応した信託商品も開発されてきています。私自身も以前は犬を飼っており、家族の一員として犬を飼っていたうちの一人です。

ペットを飼うことは容易なことではなく、ペットを飼うことによって時には生活を制限されることやお別れの悲しみなどあります。

しかし、それ以上に癒されたり心が和ませられたりと多くの幸せを私達にもたらしてくれます。

また、ペットの種類も犬や猫から蛇やトカゲなど様々になっておりペットの需要は多様化していると感じています。今日は、そんなペットについて話し合いたいと思います。

 

 

1.Have you ever kept any kinds of pets?

If you kept unique pets, please share the story.

 

2.Do you want to keep pets? Why or Why not?

What kinds of pets do you want to keep?

(Any kinds of pets are ok even if it is difficult to keep in real life. Ex. Penguin, Lion..)

 

3. Discuss the good points and bad points to keep pets.

 

4. Which do you think is happy for animals to be kept by us or to live in the wild nature?

Discuss the good points and bad points for animals to be kept by us.

 

＜LATTER HALF＞

Starbucks went one step further in its Japanese expansion plan by announcing that it would promote 800 temp workers to full-time positions.

On the Internet, many people support Starbucks’ decision and  there are even a movement called “buycott”.

On the other hand, Uniqlo had already done this movement(making part-time employee to a region-specific regular employee) in 2007, but now the company is famous as burakku kigyo, literally “black corporations”.

Is abolishing nonregular workers are really positive factor for Japanese employment situation?

 

・Agenda:Will abolishing nonregular workers would be a plus factor for Japanese employment situation?

 

・Questions:

1.Seen from employers’ side, what are the good points and bad points of  hiring nonregular workers ?

 

2.Seen from workers’ side, what are the good points and bad points of  hiring nonregular workers ?

 

3.Do you support Starbucks’ decision? Why or why not?

 

4.Do you think abolishing nonregular workers would be a plus factor for Japanese employment situation?Why or why not?

 

5.According to reference3, promoting “job-based regular employee” is desirable. Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

6.Lets think of the way workers can work in the way they wish in relief.Unique ideas are welcomed.

Such as geographically confined employment,  ji-tan.

 

 

・Reference1:Starbucks to promote 800 temp workers

By Scott R Dixon  Feb. 25, 2014 – 06:34AM JST

http://www.japantoday.com/smartphone/view/business/starbucks-to-promote-800-temp-workers

 

With just over 1,000 stores covering practically every prefecture, Starbucks is a coffee powerhouse in Japan. Since opening its first store in Tokyo in 1996, the company has managed to adapt its business model to suit Japanese tastes with seasonal flavors, expanded (alcoholic) menu options and utilizing Japan’s unique architecture.

 

Last week, Starbucks went one step further in its Japanese expansion plan by announcing that it would promote 800 temp workers to full-time positions, which Internet commenters applauded as a move to create pressure on the Japanese market to provide better benefits to workers.

 

Starbucks, which currently has about 1,800 full-time employees, revealed their plan last week to promote 800 temp workers on April 1 during an interview with TV Tokyo. The move will increase numbers to 2,600 full-time employees, a more than 40% increase in headcount. The company said they will end its system of hiring so-called “permatemp” employees and instead only hire full-time workers from now on. This isn’t the first time Starbucks has taken a stand for its employees like how CEO Howard Schultz has pushed for providing health insurance for part-time workers in the U.S.

 

Promoting the 800 workers will give them the benefits, pay and rights of a full-time employee and will probably prevent the high worker turnover that is common in the food service industry in Japan. And Starbucks is likely betting on happier employees to create happier long-term profits. Although Starbucks will continue to hire part-time workers to work in its cafes, this change in company policy is expected to trickle down and make for better working conditions for all employees.

 

Most commenters were extremely ecstatic to hear the news and hoped Starbucks’ move to provide better benefits to its employees would pressure Japanese companies to do the same. Amid the usual news about falling Japanese wages and a stagnant economy, people were surprised to hear that a foreign company still has hope for the Japanese market. And some even called for a “buycott” to support Starbucks’ decision to boost benefits for its employees.

 

Here are some comments:

 

“Usually I go to Doutor, but I’m going to try Starbucks from now on.”

 

“That’s it, my official coffee place is Starbucks now.”

 

“This is great, but how did they only have 1,800 full-time employees before?!?”

 

But others wondered how optimistic they should really be feeling. One commenter wondered if focusing on benefits in the food service industry would discourage workers from looking for “better” jobs. Other less snobby commenters worried that part-time workers may be let go to pay for more expensive full-time workers. And one Twitter user thought that the April 1 promotion date seemed a little fishy and hoped it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke.

 

It will be interesting to see if and when other coffee shops or restaurants in Japan respond to Starbucks’ push for better benefits.

 

・Reference2:

UNIQLO’s evil method to oppress workers revealed

October 13, 2013  Akahata Sunday edition

http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=6558

 

The major clothing chain UNIQLO is notorious for its high labor turnover. About half of its new employees leave the company within three years. Akahata lately obtained internal documents as well as testimony from a former employee regarding its evil method to oppress its employees.

 

The UNIQLO Ginza shop in central Tokyo, which opened in 2005, handed out to its workers a document entitled “Requirements for Personnel”. It lists many items under three categories: needed staff; unneeded staff; and useless staff on whom employee training has no effect.

 

One of the items under “unneeded staff” is a person who makes complaints. An employee who refuses to disclose information about his/her personal life or admonish other employees for improper behavior is regarded as a “useless” staff member.

 

A 30-year-old woman who was driven to quit the shop said, “Workers who expressed an opinion different from their boss, including me, were transferred to another section.”

 

One of the main methods used to “select proper” employees is a promotional examination. To pass the exam, staff members are required to learn by heart the company’s management philosophy with 23 clauses and familiarize themselves with the contents of a manual of several hundred pages.

 

The woman was promoted in March 2007 from a part-time employee to a region-specific regular employee after taking the exams several times. “As we were forbidden to take the manual home with us or make a photocopy of it, we had to copy the book into our notebooks by hand during break times or after work,” she said.

 

Sasayama Naoto, a lawyer familiar with labor issues, pointed out that if employees are required to copy the book into their notebooks, the time to do so is counted as working hours, and the employer is obliged to pay them overtime allowances for that.

 

When the ex-worker was working at the customer complaint department, her ability rating was lowered due to having no chance to serve customers face-to-face, and her wage was reduced accordingly.

 

Lawyer Sasayama said, “An employer has the right to evaluate employees’ performance. However, if the evaluation is unfair, it is an abuse of power.”

 

UNIQLO has a total of 1,280 stores worldwide as of the end of August (834 shops at home and 446 abroad). According to the March issue of Forbes, the company’s Chairman and President Yanai Tadashi possesses assets worth 15.5 billion dollars, the largest amount among Japanese multibillionaires for the second straight year.

 

・Reference3:Addressing the Problems with Japan’s Peculiar Employment System

http://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00088/

 

 

 

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