| Abstract | |
| Survey Number | 0103 |
| Survey Title | Working Hours System, 1992 |
| Depositor | JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards (Former Name:Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards) |
| Restriction of Use |
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| Educational Purpose | Only available for research. |
| Period of Data Use Permission | One year |
| Access to Datasets | Download |
| SSJDA Data Analysis | Not available |
| Summary | Against the backdrop of continued efforts at shorter work hours, new forms of work hours such as flextime and discretional hours have been introduced to the workplace in accordance with the reconsideration of personnel and labor management, diversified forms of employment, and changing worker consciousness. All this, in general, is considered to help reduce work hours, but is also affecting corporate control of employment and work hours as well as workers' morality and consciousness. This survey was conducted to provide basic data for promoting shorter work hours and workers' welfare by investigating the actual state of work hours, effects and problems of the new systems, and issues of shorter work hours and union efforts to be tackled in the future. |
| Data Type | quantitative research: micro data |
| Universe | Labor unions and unionists. The major subjects of the union questionnaire were the factory, shop, and business establishment (and "company" if the factory or establishment itself constituted a firm) which were either practicing or planning a new system of work hours. The unionist questionnaire was directed to unionists at local chapters. |
| Unit of Observation | Organization |
| Sample Size |
[Union Questionnaire] A sample of 638 chapters, of which 520 (81.5%) returned valid responses. [Unionist Questionnaire] A sample of 4,934 unionists, of whom 3,935 (79.8%) returned valid responses. |
| Date of Collection |
1992-01 ~ 1992-03 January--March, 1992 |
| Time Period |
1992 ~ 1992 |
| Spatial Unit | |
| Sampling Procedure |
Non-probability
[Union Questionnaire] The major subjects of the union questionnaire were the factory, shop, and business establishment (and "company" if the factory or establishment itself constituted a firm) which were either practicing or planning a new system of work hours. Six hundred and thirty eight chapters were selected as respondents from 16 industrial unions. [Unionist Questionnaire] Respondents were selected from among unionists at 164 chapters of the same 16 industrial unions. |
| Mode of Data Collection | Self-administered questionnaire RIALS-set numbers of self-administered questionnaires were distributed and collected via industrial unions. Union questionnaires were filled out by chapter officials. |
| Investigator | JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards |
| DOI | 10.34500/SSJDA.0103 |
| Sponsors (Funds) | The Ministry of Labor |
| Related Publications (by the Investigator) | JTUC-RIALS (March, 1992) Rodo jikan no tanshuku to rodo jikan seido ni kansuru chosa-kenkyu hokokusho (Report of the Research Study on Shorter Work Hours and Working Hours Systems). |
| Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) | List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis) |
| Documentation | [Roudou kumiai Chosa-hyo][Kumiai in Chosa-hyo] |
| Major Survey Items |
[Union Questionnaire] (1) Profile of establishment Number of regular workers; characteristics of factory, shop, or establishment (industry, location in broader organization, number of employees, their sex, age, and occupational composition, location); employees' stability; productivity and business performance of establishment. (2) Work hours Total number of actual hours worked per year; efforts toward shorter work hours (goals, set or not; goal achievement year; total number of actual hours worked per year, targeted and desired by unionists; total number of actual hours worked per year, increased/decreased between 1988 and 1990; (if decreased) reasons. (3) Systems of work hours Current state (composition of employment forms; most frequent workweek; work hours systems adopted); flextime (process of adoption, reasons for adoption, form of adoption, changes in starting/closing time, evaluation of system, efforts after adoption and areas for improvement); varied hours (process of adoption, reasons for adoption, form of adoption, evaluation of system); discretional hours (occupations for -; effect on work and work hours; prospects for spread; union's cautions upon adoption); union efforts with systems (specialized committee, formed or not; labor-management differences in opinion in committee; preparation of workplace and working conditions for shorter work hours). [Unionist Questionnaire] (1) attribute Sex; age; length of working; education; household composition; existence of spouse's income; the bottom child's growth stage; household income; the kind of house, area of workplace; commutation means; type of industry; company scale; location of workplace; occupational description; employment status; position; experience of union executive. (2) Current work hours Current work hours systems; experience of varied hours system during the past year. (3) Systems of work hours Evaluation about flextime work hours; evaluation about varied hours; evaluation about discretional work hours; prospect of future spread of discretional work hours, problems when introducing discretional work hours; the desirable system of work hours; system of work hours which is not desirable. (4) Shorter work hours Workweek; one-month average overtime hours; the actual condition of the annual-paid-holidays acquisition in the last fiscal year; introduction of various special vacation systems (system existence, desire of expansion or introducing); free time of the usual work day; expectation for unions to tackle shorter work hours; what should be minded when unions tackle shorter work hours; relation between wage raising and shorter work hours; life consciousness (managerial position intention or work intention, work hours consideration or free time consideration, saving intention or life enjoyment intention); activity with the biggest meaning among hobby, work, home etc. |
| Date of Release | 1999/12/08 |
| Topics in CESSDA |
Click here for details Labour relations/conflict Working conditions |
| Topics in SSJDA | Employment/Labor |
| Version | 1 ： 1999-12-08 |
| Notes for Users | Data Sets are written in Japanese. |