Hitachi, Sony freeze wages, to implement work-sharing

Responding to the Japanese government's attempt to help companies retain employees during the current economic turmoil, Hitachi and Sony will freeze wages and introduce work sharing.

Hitachi said it had formed an agreement with its labour union to freeze its regular workers' salaries form April for a period of six months. Hitachi will also implement the Japanese work-sharing style concept under which employees will take one day of unpaid leave during weekdays said company officials.

Hitachi is expected to record a hefty net loss in fiscal 2008 ending March 31, taking this into view the labour union made considerable compromises at the annual spring wage negotiations, inorder to retain workforce in these trying times where companies are on a massive lay offs mood.

Similarly, Sony Corp also has agreed to freeze the monthly wages of its workers starting from April to sustain and improve its revenue, the financial reported daily Nikkei reported .

In a further move, Sony expects to cuts bonuses and salaries of executives. The labour staff's bonuses will be reduced from 6 months to 4 months and for managers the annual salary compensation will be reduced by 10 to 20 per cent and reduction in bonuses to the tune of  35 to 40 per cent bonus, said the paper.

Sony, too is expected to post its first loss in 14 years as the global recession coupled with a strong yen force it to revise its forecasts downwards for fiscal 2008 ending. (See: Sony braces up for recession; cuts jobs, closes factories)

The government too along with employers as well as labour union is forming a tri-party agreement to protect jobs. (See: Japan mulls work-sharing agreements to protect jobs)