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

NTT West workers protest against company's order of distant transfer

About 500 workers staged a protest in front of the head office of NTT West in Osaka City on July 3 against the company's new restructuring plan.

They are members of the Telecommunication Workers' Union, an NTT workers' union affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren).

In May 2002, the NTT Group announced a 110,000 job cut. It consigned phone installation, repair, and maintenance services to local subsidiary companies. It also forced workers 50 and older to agree to retire and to be re-employed at wages 30 percent lower than what they received as full-time workers. Those who refused to accept the company's offer were transferred to other offices located far from their homes.

The NTT Group is now pursuing a new restructuring plan to consign all telecommunication services to local subsidiary companies under the name of "reviewing its business structure." Under the plan, NTT will not fulfill its responsibility to respond to the needs for disaster relief, thus throwing off its duty to maintain telecommunication as part of public services.

In line with the new restructuring plan, NTT West in late June ordered 30 employees to relocate to distant offices.

Okamoto Jun'ichiro, 55, who has been working at an NTT West office in Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture, was ordered to transfer to Nagaokakyo City in Kyoto Prefecture.

For 33 years, he had been a maintenance worker checking switchboards. After transferring from Hamamatsu City in Shizuoka Prefecture to Nagoya in 2002, he suffered from duodenal ulcer, and still has a health problem. His wife and three children are living in Hamamatsu City.

"I've filed a lawsuit against the company calling for a withdrawal of the first distant transfer. It is unacceptable that NTT pressed me to accept additional disadvantages. As a major telecommunication company, NTT cannot keep forcing employees to endure such severe working conditions," said Okamoto.

Union Chair Iwasaki Takashi said, "Under the Koizumi 'structural reform' policy, NTT ignores the NTT Law that clearly orders the company to contribute to public well-being. We must do more to heighten public awareness and expose NTT for pursuing the profit-first principle and neglecting citizens' information and telecommunication rights."
- Akahata, July 4, 2006