Court issues unfair ruling on Suzuki Motor Corp. anti-JCP discrimination

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Court issues unfair ruling on Suzuki Motor Corp. anti-JCP discrimination

The Tokyo High Court on December 7 overturned a district court decision that had acknowledged anti-communist discrimination by Suzuki Motor Corp. and had ordered the company to pay seven workers who were Japanese Communist Party members 35 million yen in compensation.

The high court rejected all the plaintiffs' claims for the elimination of Suzuki's discrimination practices against the JCP member workers.

Ruling out all testimonies by witnesses and ignoring all statements of facts submitted by 20 other Suzuki workers, the judge accepted everything the company argued.

Raising a stern protest against such an unfair ruling, the seven plaintiffs, their legal team, and supporters agreed to continue fighting in court to establish freedom and democracy in the workplace.

Suzuki for more than 30 years has discriminated against the seven workers in wages and promotions on the grounds that they are JCP members as a warning to other workers. They are paid 2.6 million yen less a year than other workers who entered the company at the same time.

The JCP member workers have taken a lead in the struggle to improve the poor working conditions that have caused suicides from forced overtime work without pay and excessively long working hours.
- Akahata, December 8, 2006