labor

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Labor commission orders company to stop pressing workers to quit union

In support of a claim filed by workers at Nac Co., Ltd., the Tokyo Metropolitan Labor Relations Commission on June 27 issued an order that the company should not deny the existence of a labor union and that it must stop pressuring the workers to quit the union.

Doing multiple businesses including renting cleaning equipment, Nac employs as many as 1,700 people. Half of them are non-regular workers who entered into contracts for work individually with the company as field service staff.

Last November, the employees, mainly consisting of non-regular workers, established the Nac branch of the All Japan Construction, Transport, and General Workers' Union (Kenkoro).

Showing hostility to the labor union, the company began to destroy the union soon after its establishment. The company executives, including the president, barged into workers' homes, coercing them into quitting the union.

The Labor Relations Commission ruled that the company's attempt to destroy the union is an illegal labor practice, recognizing the "individual contractors" as workers whose right to organize is protected by the Labor Union Law. This epoch-making ruling is expected to exert a significant influence on improving the working conditions of non-regular workers.

In Japan, the number of those who are classified as "individual contractors" is rapidly increasing. They are workers in essence, but they are exempt from legal protection as workers. This type of employment is used by corporations to escape from employer obligations, including payment of labor insurance and social insurance premiums for their employees.
- Akahata, June 28, 2006