With help from JCP, ex-spa hotel employees receive 5.4 million yen in unpaid wages

Japan Press Weekly

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With help from JCP, ex-spa hotel employees receive 5.4 million yen in unpaid wages

Former employees of a hotel at Kusatsu Spa who were fired in June without pay with the closure of the hotel, will obtain the 5.4 million yen in unpaid wages by the end of this month. Their consultation with the Japanese Communist Party by the ex-employees has brought about this outcome.

The Daitokan, a well-known Japanese-style hotel at Kusatsu Spa in Gunma Prefecture, failed to pay wages to the employees since December 2009. In June this year, the managing company suddenly closed the hotel and fired all the employees with only three days’ notice. No payment was made either for their unpaid wages or severance pay.

Sixty-nine people out of the total dismissed applied at the local Labor Standards Inspection Office for the state system to temporarily pay their unpaid wages in lieu of payment by the employer, but their application for assistance went unheeded.

The former head chef advised them to consult the Japanese Communist Party regarding the case, saying “The JCP is devoted to helping workers.” They then sent a letter in the name of the trade union to JCP Chair Shii Kazuo, calling for help in the difficult situation they faced.

Shii, who is also a House of Representatives member, liaised with JCP Upper and Lower House members and the local assembly members’ group, carried out an on-site investigation, and requested the local LSIO and the Labor Standards Inspection Bureau to promptly acknowledge the ex-employees’ application for assistance.

This precipitated a decision for the state to temporarily pay the unpaid wages, and the former head chef said, “We also sent a letter to the Health, Labor and Welfare Minister, but there has been no reply. Without the JCP’s help, we wouldn’t have been able to survive the difficult conditions.”

-Akahata, September 18, 2010