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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Court begins reviewing appeal on Suzuki's discrimination against JCP members

The Tokyo High Court on February 9 began a review of an appeal filed by seven Japanese Communist Party members against Suzuki Motor Corporation over discrimination based on ideology.

Showing animosity toward workers who are JCP members working to improve working conditions, the leading mini-vehicle maker violated human rights in many ways such as by ordering other employees to not talk to them and by discriminating against them in wages. Their annual salaries have been 860 thousand to 2.6 million yen less than their colleagues the same age.

The seven workers in 2000 and 2001 filed a lawsuit against the company with the Shizuoka District Court, calling for an end to the discrimination based on ideology. The court in 2005 ordered Suzuki to pay a total of 35 million yen in compensation to six of the seven plaintiffs, and recognized that the company had discriminated against them because they were JCP members. Both the plaintiffs and the defendant appealed against this decision.

A plaintiff in his statement to the appeal court said that Suzuki is unwilling to stop forcing its workers to work overtime without pay even though it received repeated on-site inspections and warnings by the Labor Standards Inspection Office. He also accused the company of neglecting to claim workers compensation to the labor ministry concerning a worker's suicide due to cruel working conditions, including excessively long working hours and intensified work. He also presented an example of the company's anti-JCP practice in which a JCP-member worker has been forced to work in isolation for 20 years.
- Akahata, February 10, 2006