Contract workers urge Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to fulfill corporate social responsibility

Japan Press Weekly

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Contract workers urge Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to fulfill corporate social responsibility

Female contract workers have joined a union to urge Japan’s top bank to fulfill its corporate social responsibility and maintain their present levels of employment.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, LTD. (MUFG) in October 2004 launched an over-the-counter business for credit card solicitation by using female temporary workers. In October 2007, MUFG directly employed 400 temporary workers under six-month contracts. However, in June this year, the company announced its plan to dismiss all 400 contract workers because of the sluggish growth in new credit-card holders.

A 31-year-old female contract worker, who has worked at a MUFG branch in Tokyo for nearly four years, is a single-mother with a six-year-old girl. She earns about 200,000 yen a month and has continued to renew her contract with the aim of obtaining a full-time position. After becoming a contract worker, she has been responsible for numerous credit-card related jobs.

“I felt like that I saw nothing but a bleak future ahead of me,” she said when describing what she felt when she heard about the company’s dismissal plan in June. In October, she received an e-mail from her friend working at another MUFG branch informing her that other contract workers were standing up to the company’s dismissal plan by joining a union. She then decided to join the union for financial services industry workers.

As for now, 10 contract workers have joined the union.

The union points out that most of the contract workers have worked at MUFG branches for more than three years, including their period as temporary workers, and that those workers should be regarded as full-time workers because they have repeatedly renewed their contracts for three years.

The union also claims that there is no urgent reason for MUFG to dismiss all 400 contract workers because MUFG in its half-year earnings report for the fiscal period ending in September posted a net profit of 356.7 billion yen.

The above-mentioned female worker said, “Protecting workers’ livelihoods is a part of corporate social responsibility. I want MUFG to fulfill its responsibility.”

- Akahata, December 10, 2010