Leading electronics companies cut domestic personnel and increase workforce
abroad

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives Member Shiokawa Tetsuya
has revealed that Japan's six major electronics companies have cut the
numbers of their employees in Japan by nearly 56,000 and hired about 200,000
workers in the past ten years abroad.

At these six companies, Hitachi, Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial
Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and Fujitsu
Ltd., employees have taken only 70 percent of their paid leaves. They are
forced to work long hours and do much work in a short time at the cost of
their health, and work overtime without pay.

In the restructuring plans these companies have announced since last
summer, another 41,700 workers will be fired on the pretext of the "IT
recession".

Shiokawa said that the government should call on these companies to
review their plans and fulfill their duties to the society so that jobs are
secured and local economies protected. (end)