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Court orders JAL’s largest union to pay compensation for privacy abuse The Tokyo District Court on October 28 ordered JAL’s largest union to pay about 1.9 million yen to plaintiffs in compensation for privacy abuse. A group of 193 JAL cabin attendants filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against Japan Airline’s biggest union, JAL Friendship & Improvement Organization (JALFIO), a member union of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), and its five former executive members. The plaintiffs were demanding 10,000 yen each in compensation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed that the JALFIO with the help of JAL secretly made a file containing all cabin attendants’ personal information which was collected in an illegal manner. The ruling pointed out that all information was collected without the consent of JAL employees and without legitimate purpose, and went on to say that it is a violation of privacy “to collect, store, and use personal information by means which harm personal life.” The existence of the file was exposed in 2007. The file included 158 types of personal data of 9,862 JAL employees, including cabin attendants, not only about employees’ thoughts and creeds but also about very personal information such as single mother status or history of miscarriage, which must have been difficult to collect without the company’s cooperation. JAL was also a defendant initially, but during the trial it accepted the plaintiffs’ claim for compensation and paid them 48 million yen in total though denying it’s involvement in the union’s illegal collection of personal data, and pulled itself out of the lawsuit. At a news conference held after the court order, a representative of the plaintiffs’ group said, “We are very happy. The court recognized that the union violated our human rights. However, JAL at present in its downsizing plan is forcing cabin attendants to resign in a manner that infringes on workers’ rights. We want to utilize this ruling in our struggle for a meaningful rehabilitation of JAL.”
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