Nurse wins back former job

A nurse, arguing that her hospital management's order of transfer on the grounds that she is a union branch leader is an unfair labor practice, on July 15 won a return to her former post and payment of unpaid wages.

Kawachi Iyo is a head nurse at Sanjo Sogo Hospital of the Welfare Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Koseiren) in Niigata Prefecture, and is also a branch head of the Koseiren Union.

In April 1999, hospital management ordered Kawachi to transfer to Nagaoka Central School of Nursing, but she has argued that her transfer is aimed at pulling herself apart from the union branch.

In January 2001, the Niigata prefectural Local Labor Relations Commission ordered the management to reinstate Kawachi and pay her unpaid salaries, followed by Niigata District Court in February with a similar order. The management side filed a complaint against these decisions to the Central Labor Relations Commission, but was rejected on July 15. (end)