Postal workers sit-in against severe night shift

Postal workers on November 20 staged a sit-in in front of the Japan Post headquarters in Tokyo in opposition to a plan to make the graveyard shift harsher.

The action was organized by the Postal Industry Workers' Union (PIWU) Tokyo branch, with 23 union members participating.

Following the April changeover in postal services from a governmental agency to a self-financing public corporation called Japan Post, Ikuta Masaharu, former chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, became the first president of Japan Post. He soon planned a mass shake-up in service regulations and met with workers' anger.

Under the present system, workers work for 14 hours, including time for a two-hour-and-half nap while on night duty, and have a day off on the following day. The planned system, however, calls for 10-hour night shifts from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. with one hour for rest for four consecutive nights. This new system will take effect from February next year.

Tsuchida Kazuo, chair of PIWU Tokyo Branch, said, "Even with the present night shift system, 100 colleagues were found dead while on duty in the past decade. The planned system will be far more cruel."

A survey of 300 postal workers, including ones in a different union, shows that 98 percent of respondents said they oppose the new system, the chair added. (end)