More workers look to JCP which forced company to pay for overtime work

Something new is happening in favor of the Japanese Communist Party at a major electronics maker in Itami City in the western Japanese prefecture of Hyogo.

More workers now accept JCP handbills at the gate of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation's Itami plant, where the JCP's campaign successfully forced the company to pay for overtime work.

In April 2002, Electric Itami Committee paid 700 workers about 70 million yen in back pay for overtime, ending the outrageous practice of forcing workers to work overtime without pay.

This was made possible by the intensive efforts by the JCP Mitsubishi Electric Itami Committee and JCP members of parliament to put an end to forced overtime work.

In April 2001, the JCP committee began a campaign to record hours of overtime work. Later, JCP members of parliament, including Omori Takeshi, used their question-time to expose the unpaid overtime work at Mitsubishi. They also requested the local Labor Standards Inspection Office to instruct the electronics maker to abide by the labor law.

JCP members are among the workers who are compelled to work overtime, so they try to find time to reach out as many workers as possible in order to explain JCP policies and proposals.

A JCP member said that he found Akahata analysis of business circles' strategies to increase profits at the expense of workers very useful in helping workers to understand their present circumstances. (end)