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Labour-Magement Roundtable Meeting
Management and the Labour Union Hold Information Exchange and Roundtable Meetings Regularly
- Labour Relations by Mutual Trust -
There are two labor unions in Bayer Yakuhin, with different approach to employment, labor conditions and the relationship with the company. Non-managerial employees belong to either of them.
Management, including the chairman and the president, try to enhance direct dialogue and communication with each and every employee through the implementation of initiatives such as the “ Let’s Talk with the President.” In addition, Bayer Yakuhin also sets great store on dialogue with the labour unions.
Regular labour-management roundtable meetings (information and opinion exchange meetings) between the Chairman, the President, the HR Manager and representatives of the two labor unions are held once every two months.
Originally, there was a culture at Bayer whereby labour and management would cooperate and make decisions on everything. However, we picked up many new colleagues through the merger with Nihon Schering and the internal restructuring of the Bayer Group in 2007. With mutual respect for each other rather than just continuing with the different cultures and customs, the roundtable meetings started from 1 year prior to the merger with a proposal by the President, who asserted the necessity of creating a culture for the newborn Bayer Yakuhin and diffusing it throughout the whole company.
At the start, the meetings were held every month to discuss frankly. We judged that we created basic understanding after one year and thus changed to a bimonthly format.
At the labor-management roundtable meetings, members of management explain the business surroundings and situation such as sales and profits. Management policies and information are shared with employees. Union representatives can give opinions of employees in the workplace in a straightforward manner.
The Unions requests to the company to improve the working conditions and personnel system. Such requests are not simply demands but providing feedback to management on the levels of understanding and satisfaction of employees about measures by the company.
In general, management and labor unions conflict each other. It is said that open exchanges of opinions between them are difficult. However, at Bayer Yakuhin, the company and unions have continued discussions in various forums with a sincere attitude over many years.
There have been some critical times for the company in the past, like when the company has cancelled the launch of a product because of a pharmaceutical adverse reaction problem. In addition, there have also been phases where the opinions of both sides have been in opposition, such as during the revision of the pension system, and it has been very difficult to discover common ground. However, even then the labor union and management did not conceal anything, and made efforts together to solve the crisis and reach common understanding of situation. In the event of our advanced personnel systems, the two sides held thorough discussions of objectives, influence on and advantages for employees. On the occasion of deliberations on the comprehensive revision of the company’s benefits policy, HR and the labour unions held a camp together to establish solutions.
This is the basis of the above thorough constructive discussions which come from mutual trust cultivated over many years rather than criticism and repeated selfish assertions.
In addition, the two labor unions have different opinions and standpoints, but they sit at the same table at the roundtable meetings and deliberate matters with mutual respect.
Moreover, these are not only labour-management roundtable meetings for the company as a whole; Bayer has also come to hold roundtable meetings for some divisions at a divisional level. Each division has a different scale, product composition and history, etc, and the issues that they each need to resolve also sometimes differ. Consequently, these meetings extract issues particular to the division rather than for the company as a whole and try to exchange opinions aimed at improvement.
The basic attitude of Bayer Yakuhin is to openly disclose information on matters such as the mission, strategy and targets, and also to place importance on input from employees and their labour unions.
Management and the Labour Union Hold Information Exchange and Roundtable Meetings Regularly
- Labour Relations by Mutual Trust -
There are two labor unions in Bayer Yakuhin, with different approach to employment, labor conditions and the relationship with the company. Non-managerial employees belong to either of them.
Management, including the chairman and the president, try to enhance direct dialogue and communication with each and every employee through the implementation of initiatives such as the “ Let’s Talk with the President.” In addition, Bayer Yakuhin also sets great store on dialogue with the labour unions.
Regular labour-management roundtable meetings (information and opinion exchange meetings) between the Chairman, the President, the HR Manager and representatives of the two labor unions are held once every two months.
Originally, there was a culture at Bayer whereby labour and management would cooperate and make decisions on everything. However, we picked up many new colleagues through the merger with Nihon Schering and the internal restructuring of the Bayer Group in 2007. With mutual respect for each other rather than just continuing with the different cultures and customs, the roundtable meetings started from 1 year prior to the merger with a proposal by the President, who asserted the necessity of creating a culture for the newborn Bayer Yakuhin and diffusing it throughout the whole company.
At the start, the meetings were held every month to discuss frankly. We judged that we created basic understanding after one year and thus changed to a bimonthly format.
At the labor-management roundtable meetings, members of management explain the business surroundings and situation such as sales and profits. Management policies and information are shared with employees. Union representatives can give opinions of employees in the workplace in a straightforward manner.
The Unions requests to the company to improve the working conditions and personnel system. Such requests are not simply demands but providing feedback to management on the levels of understanding and satisfaction of employees about measures by the company.
In general, management and labor unions conflict each other. It is said that open exchanges of opinions between them are difficult. However, at Bayer Yakuhin, the company and unions have continued discussions in various forums with a sincere attitude over many years.
There have been some critical times for the company in the past, like when the company has cancelled the launch of a product because of a pharmaceutical adverse reaction problem. In addition, there have also been phases where the opinions of both sides have been in opposition, such as during the revision of the pension system, and it has been very difficult to discover common ground. However, even then the labor union and management did not conceal anything, and made efforts together to solve the crisis and reach common understanding of situation. In the event of our advanced personnel systems, the two sides held thorough discussions of objectives, influence on and advantages for employees. On the occasion of deliberations on the comprehensive revision of the company’s benefits policy, HR and the labour unions held a camp together to establish solutions.
This is the basis of the above thorough constructive discussions which come from mutual trust cultivated over many years rather than criticism and repeated selfish assertions.
In addition, the two labor unions have different opinions and standpoints, but they sit at the same table at the roundtable meetings and deliberate matters with mutual respect.
Moreover, these are not only labour-management roundtable meetings for the company as a whole; Bayer has also come to hold roundtable meetings for some divisions at a divisional level. Each division has a different scale, product composition and history, etc, and the issues that they each need to resolve also sometimes differ. Consequently, these meetings extract issues particular to the division rather than for the company as a whole and try to exchange opinions aimed at improvement.
The basic attitude of Bayer Yakuhin is to openly disclose information on matters such as the mission, strategy and targets, and also to place importance on input from employees and their labour unions.
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