JCP demands gov’t put a stop to JAL’s radical layoffs

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP demands gov’t put a stop to JAL’s radical layoffs

The group of Japanese Communist Party members of the Diet on October 14 demanded that Transport Minister Mabuchi Sumio and Labor Minister Hosokawa Ritsuo instruct Japan Airlines (JAL) to immediately cancel its coercive layoff plan.

The group also demanded a JAL restructuring plan that gives top priority to aviation safety and to the maintenance of public interests as a transport company.

The airline is planning to trim staff members on the payroll by one-third (16,000 personnel) within this year based on the existing restructuring scheme and is forcing targeted pilots and flight attendants to take early retirement, casting a shadow of impending doom on the worksite atmosphere.

The JCP representatives pointed out that such a scheme is only undermining crewmembers’ motivation and is also causing a sharp decline in the number of staff reports of near misses (accidents that cause no injuries) useful in recognizing signs of the possibility of major accidents beforehand as a means to prevent them from occurring. JAL is destroying the safety image it has created in the past, the JCP lawmakers said.

They again demanded that the government: call for a halt to the forcible layoffs at JAL; supervise the process to re-establish a system to ensure safety; request trustees in JAL’s management reconstruction proceedings to prioritize safety and a public role that JAL should play; clarify the root cause of JAL’s business failure; and reexamine the structure of aero-related administration.

- Akahata, October 15, 2010