NTT union to accept company's plan to restructure 110,000 jobs

The NTT Union on October 31 agreed with NTT Corp. management, and
accepted the corporation's plan to restructure 110,000 jobs. The formal
decision will be made after the union's extraordinary general meeting on
November 8.

NTT Corp. in late April announced a plan to reassign about 110,000
employees of its 164,000 workforce to outside companies. Of the 110,000
employees, 58,000 employees who are at age 50 and over will be dismissed and
reemployed by outside companies at lower wages, by 30 percent in the worst
case.

The NTT Union, affiliated with the Japanese Trade Union Confederation
(Rengo), in its regular convention in late August decided to basically
accept the plan, with a few conditions on compensation for the loss of
income. As a result of negotiations, the company agreed to compensate up to
60 percent of the loss of income.

NTT Trade Union Chair Tsuda Jun'ichiro said that the negotiation results
are short of convention decisions, but that he decided to accept it in the
light of the general context.

On the other hand, the Telecommunication Workers' Union affiliated with
the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) is still negotiating
with NTT. It criticized the company's alleged bad finances as window
dressing, and pointed out that forced retirement at age 50 is illegal. The
union said it is prepared to struggle jointly with the NTT Workers' Union on
agreeable points. (end)