DPJ eyes pay reduction, job cuts for national civil servants

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TOKYO, Sept. 13 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan will soon draw up a plan to change the way of
determining pay for national civil servants and cut the number of such workers
as well, so as to fulfill its election pledge to reduce overall pay for civil
servants by about 20 percent, party officials said Sunday.
The party aims at an annual reduction of 1.1 trillion yen in civil servants'
pay by fiscal 2013, they said.
The party expects its goal of a 20 percent cut to be achieved equally by the
change in the process of determining pay and the reduction in the number of
civil servants, they said.
As of fiscal 2009, Japan has about 575,000 national civil servants, including
those working in administrative offices and in the Self-Defense Forces, and
pays about 5.3 trillion yen in annual salaries.
The party, set to form a new government Wednesday after ousting the long-ruling
Liberal Democratic Party in a general election in late August, made the pledge
in response to criticism that civil servants are treated too well compared with
private-sector workers.
At present, their pay is determined by annual recommendations from the National
Personnel Authority which calculates pay in a way that brings them more into
line with salaries at private-sector companies with 50 or more employees.
But given some of the privileges civil servants have, such as the basically
secure nature of their jobs and availability of inexpensive public residences,
they are paid well, critics say.
Under the envisioned DPJ plan, the government will have the personnel authority
take salary levels at smaller companies into account in making pay
recommendations pay for civil servants.
It will also give civil servants the right to negotiate over their pay.
The personnel authority's recommendations will be used as a basis for
negotiations with civil servants, during which the government will seek cuts in
pay, according to the party officials.
At the same time, targeting about 310,000 of the 575,000 who work at
administrative offices, the DPJ aims to cut the number of such employees, they
added.
==Kyodo