Women workers denounce NTT restructuring plan

Women workers of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) held a meeting in Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture on May 19 and 20 to discuss the emerging distress after NTT had announced a massive restructuring plan to "cut more than 60,000 personnel" in three years.

Can't get through to 116 call center

For moving and relocating a phone number, 116-number centers have direct contacts with people. At the 116-number centers, workers must respond to customers' calls within 11 seconds, which is called the "receiving rate." But the rate of response to customers' calls has dropped to 20 percent from 85 percent since NTT announced its restructuring plan in early this year.

Company's profits over public benefit

At the 116-number, sales promotion of services, including the Internet, became more important than the "receiving rate," because the number of NTT sales offices were reduced to around 200 from 1,152. Sales experts monitor every phone conversation and instruct workers how to be aggressive sales representatives. NTT now neglects public benefit in order to pursue corporate profits.

Long commute

After the "consolidation" of sales offices, many workers are obliged to commute longer distances or live alone. 51-year old Baba Emiko now lives without her three kids and husband. "I chose to live alone because I didn't want to quit. But many of my colleagues had to leave the office," said Baba. A woman manager leaves home at 6:00 a.m. and takes local and bullet trains to get her office. Due to the reduced number of managers, she has to hold many jobs at the same time. "I went home by the last bullet train for three consecutive days. I'm so tired," she complained. (end)