Labor Relations Adjustment Act

労働関係調整法（ろうどうかんけいちょうせいほう）

How collective labor disputes between employers and workers are prevented and settled: the parties' own duty to settle, help from the Labour Relations Commissions (), and limits on strikes and other acts of dispute.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 54
Amendments on the way: 0

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What this law does

Employers and workers must make special efforts to keep their labor relations proper, to set out in their labor agreement (労働協約) a standing body for adjusting labor relations and how it runs, and, when a labor dispute arises, to settle it themselves in good faith. Nothing in this Act stops them settling working conditions or their differences by direct talks or collective bargaining (団体交渉), and it does not relieve them of the duty to try.(Art. 2(1), Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Read the full overview

A labor dispute (労働争議) is a disagreement between the parties to labor relations over their claims, where acts of dispute have occurred or may occur. An act of dispute (争議行為) is a strike, a slowdown, a lock-out or any other act by either side to press its claims, or to counter the other side's, that hampers the normal running of the business.(Art. 6(1), Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
A public welfare business (公益事業) is one of the following that the public cannot do without in daily life: transport; postal, correspondence delivery or telecommunications services; the supply of water, electricity or gas; and medical or public health services. With the approval of the Diet, the Prime Minister may also designate, for up to one year, another business whose stoppage would seriously harm the national economy or seriously endanger daily life, and must announce it without delay in the Official Gazette (官報) and by newspapers, radio or other suitable means.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(2), Art. 8(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
Once a labor dispute arises, the chair of the Labour Relations Commission must name a mediator for mediation (斡旋) at the request of either or both parties, or on the chair's own authority. The Commission carries out conciliation (調停) when both parties apply; when either applies under their labor agreement; in a public welfare business, when one party applies or the Commission resolves to act on its own; and when the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare or a prefectural governor requests it in a public welfare business case, or in a case that seriously harms the public interest because of its scale or the special nature of the business.(Art. 12(1), Art. 18(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Labour Relations Commission carries out arbitration (仲裁) only when both parties apply, or when one or both apply under a labor agreement that requires arbitration by the Commission. A committee of an odd number of arbitrators, three or more, decides: the parties choose them by agreement from the Commission's public-interest members or special adjustment members (特別調整委員), and the chair appoints them; if the parties do not agree, the chair picks them from those members after hearing the parties. The award is made in writing with the date it takes effect, and it has the same effect as a labor agreement (労働協約).(Art. 30(1), Art. 31(1), Art. 31-2(1), Art. 33(1), Art. 34(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
When an act of dispute occurs, its parties must report it at once to the Labour Relations Commission or the prefectural governor. No act that stops or obstructs the normal upkeep or operation of safety facilities at a factory or workplace may be done, even as an act of dispute. In a case concerning a public welfare business, a party must notify the Labour Relations Commission and the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare or the prefectural governor at least ten days before the day it intends to start an act of dispute.(Art. 9(1), Art. 36(1), Art. 37(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 states the law's own purpose

Labor disputeActs of dispute (strikes, lock-outs)Public welfare businessMediationConciliationArbitrationEmergency adjustmentNotice before an act of dispute

54 141 21 21 20

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . No amendment to this law is waiting to come into force. Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

1 amendments already in force

1 April 2016
The text on this site
Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Administrative Complaint Review Act
行政不服審査法の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

Who it applies to

It applies to

The parties to labor relations (労働関係の当事者), in their duty to settle disputes themselves, to report acts of dispute, and in the ban on acts of dispute after an emergency adjustment is announced. The ban on stopping or obstructing safety facilities, even as an act of dispute, names no one and so is not limited to them. The penalties name employers and employers' organizations, workers' organizations, and other persons or organizations responsible for a breach.(Art. 2(1), Art. 9(1), Art. 38(1), Art. 36(1), Art. 39(1), Art. 39(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
The parties to a dispute in a public welfare business (公益事業), who must give ten days' notice before an act of dispute.(Art. 8(1), Art. 37(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

1 more

The Government, which must try to help the parties adjust their differences themselves, so as to prevent acts of dispute as far as possible.(Art. 3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Special rules and exceptions (2)

The chapters on mediation, conciliation and arbitration do not prevent the parties from seeking to settle their dispute by another method of mediation, conciliation or arbitration that they agree on or that their labor agreement sets.(Art. 16(1), Art. 28(1), Art. 35(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
In a case under emergency adjustment, the Central Labour Relations Commission may conciliate even where none of the cases in Article 18 applies.(Art. 35-3(3)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it is enforced (8)

In conciliation (調停), a committee of members representing employers, workers and the public interest hears the parties, may draft a proposal and recommend that the parties accept it, and may publish it with its reasons. If both parties accept it and later disagree on what it means or how to carry it out, they must ask the committee, which must give its view within 15 days; until it does, or those 15 days pass, they may not take acts of dispute over that question.(Art. 19(1), Art. 24(1), Art. 26(1), Art. 26(2), Art. 26(3), Art. 26(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Prime Minister may decide on an emergency adjustment (緊急調整) of a dispute that, because it concerns a public welfare business, is large, or concerns a business of a special nature, would seriously harm the national economy or seriously endanger people's daily lives if an act of dispute stopped the business — but only when that danger actually exists. The Prime Minister must first hear the Central Labour Relations Commission (), and on deciding must at once announce the decision with its reasons and notify the Commission and the parties.(Art. 35-2(1), Art. 35-2(2), Art. 35-2(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
Once an emergency adjustment decision is announced, the parties may not take any act of dispute for 50 days from the day of the announcement. In a public welfare business, the ten days' notice of an act of dispute cannot even be given until those 50 days have passed.(Art. 38(1), Art. 37(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Central Labour Relations Commission must do its utmost to settle a case under emergency adjustment, ahead of all its other cases. It may mediate, conciliate, or arbitrate (arbitration only where Article 30 allows it), look into the facts of the case and publish them, and recommend the steps it finds needed to settle it.(Art. 35-3(1), Art. 35-3(2), Art. 35-4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
No request for administrative review (審査請求) can be made against the Prime Minister's emergency adjustment decision.(Art. 35-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Breaking the ten days' notice rule of Article 37 is punishable by a fine of up to 100,000 yen, and taking an act of dispute during the 50 days after an emergency adjustment is announced by a fine of up to 200,000 yen. The fine falls on whoever is responsible for the breach — an employer or employers' organization, a workers' organization, or another person or organization; for a corporation or other body it is applied to the directors or other officers who run it, and a body that has dissolved is treated as still existing. The fines for one act of dispute cannot add up to more than 100,000 yen, or 200,000 yen for the 50-day ban.(Art. 39(1), Art. 39(2), Art. 39(3), Art. 39(4), Art. 40(1), Art. 40(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
A breach of the ten days' notice rule (the Article 39 offence) can be prosecuted only at the request of the Labour Relations Commission. Article 42 says this of the Article 39 offence only, not of the 50-day ban in Article 40.(Art. 42(1), Art. 39(1), Art. 40(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
The penalty articles name breaches of Article 37 and Article 38 only. The chair of a conciliation or arbitration committee may order anyone who obstructs the fair conduct of the proceedings to leave.(Art. 39(1), Art. 40(1), Art. 43(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it connects to other laws

Cites this lawLawThis law cites it

3
Labor Union Act
4

It also names 3 laws not yet held here.

Where the translation comes from

The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.

Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.

Sources

Everything this page rests on

e-Gov (Digital Agency)労働関係調整法 — the text in force from 2016-04-01Original
e-Gov (Digital Agency)労働関係調整法 — revision historyOriginal
Japanese Law Translation, Ministry of JusticeLabor Relations Adjustment Act — Ministry of Justice translationOriginal
Machine translation, not official
Written for this site with AIEnglish titles of amending laws, written for this site
Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text

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