Watami, Japan’s major restaurant and pub chain is looking to rebuild its image damaged by cases of poor working conditions as well as several of work related deaths (karoshi). Going forward, the company will require all employees to become members of a trade union that was set up in May 2016. Until now the company has always refused to accept any trade union, believing them to be of no use, but in the face of falling productivity levels the company has finally accepted the need to boost its image.
On 03 October, the major UA Zensen trade union (affiliated with the Rengo confederation) signed an agreement with company leaders to raise pay for both part-time and full-time workers, some 10,000 employees in total. When the company was initially set up it employed 13,181. The maximum hourly pay rise will be 25 Yen (22 cent) and represents a symbolic rise in a bid by the company to boost its image when it is notorious for deaths related to overwork. In fact Watami is on the country’s worst bus
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