Japan's largest steel maker loses discrimination suit to JCP members
Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan's largest iron and steel maker, lost a lawsuit over its discrimination against Japanese Communist Party members.
Pointing out that Nippon Steel infringed on the human rights of the workers who are JCP members, the Kobe District Court on March 29 ordered the company to pay 15 million yen in compensation to five plaintiffs.
The judge blamed the company for systematically violating the workers' human rights by using a secret society devoted to ousting JCP members from the company.
The five workers of the Nippon Steel Hirohata ironworks in Himeji in Hyogo Prefecture filed an anti-discrimination lawsuit in 1998.
In court, they exposed the company's flagrant violations of human rights by keeping them in quarantine in retaliation for their opposition to the company's restructuring policy that resulted in worker dismissals. The company went so far as to ostracize JCP members by forbidding other employees to speak with them.
The five also charged the company with wage discrimination against them since they were paid 2 million yen less in annual income than their equals with the same academic careers and lengths of service. (end)
