  It is corporate social responsibility to eliminate discrimination in the workplace -- Akahata editorial, October 20A lawsuit filed by 13 women workers against gender discrimination at Nomura Securities Co. was settled at the Tokyo High Court on October 15. The company agreed to shift three plaintiffs who are active workers from a "noncareer track" to a "career track", promote them to assistant-section chiefs, and pay settlement money to all plaintiffs. Eliminate gender discrimination The 13 workers filed the lawsuit in 1993. It is significant that in the settlement the company agreed to promote the plaintiffs, although it was not ordered to do so by the Tokyo District Court in 2002. The question at issue was Nomura's personnel management system placing only male workers on a "career track", barring female workers from being promoted to managerial positions. Since the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted in 1968, many large corporations have introduced the discriminatory personnel management system as a new way to continue in-house discrimination even though the law prohibits discrimination in wages and promotion. In 1999, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was amended. While the original law only required employers to make efforts to eliminate discrimination in recruitment, employment, placement, and promotion, the amended law banned such discrimination. However, Nomura maintained its personnel management system of discrimination against women. The Tokyo District Court in 2002 ruled that it was in violation of the Equal Law for Nomura to continue the discriminatory management system even after the amended law took effect in 1999. The ruling caught public attention by stressing the illegality of the personnel management system for the first time. At the same time, the court failed to order the company to promote the plaintiffs. It insisted that the discrimination exercised by Nomura before 1999 was not against the Labor Standards Law. With this settlement, the plaintiffs who joined the company between 1963 and 1965 will be promoted to become assistant-section chiefs. This is a milestone in the effort to eliminate discrimination against women in that the company has agreed to redress discrimination that existed before the 1999 revision of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law. The court stated that the settlement was reached by confirming that efforts are underway in Japan and abroad to eliminate gender discrimination. The Japanese government has often come under fire from the international community for its failure to act to eliminate discrimination against women in employment. In September 2001, the U.N. Human Rights Committee expressed its concern that many Japanese companies continue to deprive woman employees of opportunities to be promoted on a professional career track. Last August, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged the Japanese government to take legislative steps to end gender discrimination, including discriminatory personnel management systems. The government should now begin to increase its efforts to get gender discrimination substantively corrected. Criticism from abroad The Nomura Securities group in April established ethical regulations binding management and all employees, providing that human rights must be respected, gender discrimination or any harassment be swept away, equal opportunities be guaranteed, and sound working environments sustained. Apparently, this step was taken as a response to mounting international criticism, including a European investment-grade rating firm that rated Nomura group companies as inappropriate to invest in because of the prevailing gender discrimination. Ending gender discrimination is an important question relating to corporate social responsibility. The need now is for companies to seriously work for the elimination of gender discrimination. (end) |