 Firm ordered to compensate for its retaliation against whistle-blower The Toyama District Court on February 23 ordered the prefecture's major trucking firm Tonami Transportation to pay compensation to an employee for demoting and quarantining him for blowing the whistle on a secret price-fixing cartel among major transportation companies. The employee, Kushioka Hiroaki, 58, in 1972 requested the company to end the illegal cartel, and in 1973 he blew the whistle on the cartel to the Fair Trade Commission. He was transferred to another post and in the nearly 30 years since he has been excluded from promotions and pay raises, and was quarantined for a period of time. Kushioka filed a lawsuit against the company, calling for an apology and a compensation of 54 million yen for damages. The district court fully accepted as fact the plaintiff's statement on how the company treated him, and ordered the company to pay about 13 million yen as back pay for the wages he lost, excluding the time period that was lost due to the statute of limitations. As a law was enacted last year to protect whistle-blowers for the public good, the trial has drawn attention on whether the court recognizes the company's disadvantageous treatment of Kushioka as retaliation against him as a whistle-blower. Presiding judge Nagano Atsuhiko stated, "The plaintiff's whistle-blowing is justifiable and is worth legal protection." The ruling recognized that the whistle-blowing served the public good and denounced the company for the mistreatment against the plaintiff by making him do only odd jobs and giving him no pay raises in retaliation. Kushioka said, "I see more people who will blow the whistle after this. I think the ruling will encourage them." (end) |