Investing.com -- The 2025 wage negotiation season is progressing with UA Zensen, a major Japanese labor union, achieving early and significant settlements on March 12, 2025, its first concentrated response day. This trend mirrors the previous year, where unions with less than 300 members reached more settlements than larger unions. Notably, part-time workers have secured wage increases surpassing those of full-time employees for the ninth year in a row.
As of 10:00 on March 13, 2025, settlements were reached for 139 unions representing full-time workers, 95 unions for part-time workers, and 15 unions for contract workers. This equates to wage increases for a total of over 760,000 union members. As of the same date, the average wage increase for full-time union members was 17,046 yen (5.37%), while part-time union members saw an average increase of 75.7 yen (6.53%).
On the afternoon of March 13, 2025, UA Zensen held a press conference attended by 46 individuals from 26 companies, including media representatives. Chairman Nagashima Tomoko stated, "With the first concentrated response day upon us, following last year’s record high, we have achieved a wage increase that can be said to be at a high level for the third consecutive year. This struggle is a crucial moment for ’establishing’ the trend of wage increases that will continue into 2023 and 2024, and also for ’accelerating’ the correction of disparities between employment types between full-time employees and part-time union members."
The chairman also highlighted the progress made in reducing disparities between company sizes and praised the efforts of their member unions who negotiated not only for their members but also for smaller unions. She expressed commitment to continue strengthening their joint struggle system and individual support in various industries and regions to achieve real wage increases that will improve lives.
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