October 7, 2013
The Nestle Japan Labor Union and the Hyogo Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions (Hyogo-roren) have reached a settlement with Nestle Japan regarding their 31-year-long labor dispute, the first ever case resolved in Japan in accordance with the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises.
Daikoku Sakuji, the president of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), a major national center of Japanese trade unions and Enrique Rueda, an executive in charge of labor management of the Swiss-based multinational food maker, signed the settlement document on October 1 in Tokyo.
Zenroren and the Nestle Japan Labor Union issued a statement welcoming the fact that the agreement under the OECD Guidelines will be a precedent that should be effective in preventing or solving labor disputes with foreign multinationals operating in Japan.
The statement also evaluates the Guidelines as a useful instrument for improving general working conditions and defending Japanese workers’ rights.
In the early 1980s, Nestle Japan began taking control of the union and forcing the union split. Since then, the food giant has received more than 100 administrative orders and court judgments denouncing its discriminative treatment of union workers, human right abuses, and unfair dismissals of union workers.
In 2005, the Nestle Japan Labor Union, Hyogo-roren, together with Zenroren filed a complaint against Nestle Japan with the OECD National Contact Point established in the Japanese government. In 2007, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira took up the issue of the dispute in the Diet. With this Diet questioning as an opportunity to publicize the matter, procedures toward settlement made progress.
The OECD Guidelines set principles and standards requiring multinational operations to act responsibly in a wide range of areas such as human rights, employment, and environment.
Daikoku Sakuji, the president of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), a major national center of Japanese trade unions and Enrique Rueda, an executive in charge of labor management of the Swiss-based multinational food maker, signed the settlement document on October 1 in Tokyo.
Zenroren and the Nestle Japan Labor Union issued a statement welcoming the fact that the agreement under the OECD Guidelines will be a precedent that should be effective in preventing or solving labor disputes with foreign multinationals operating in Japan.
The statement also evaluates the Guidelines as a useful instrument for improving general working conditions and defending Japanese workers’ rights.
In the early 1980s, Nestle Japan began taking control of the union and forcing the union split. Since then, the food giant has received more than 100 administrative orders and court judgments denouncing its discriminative treatment of union workers, human right abuses, and unfair dismissals of union workers.
In 2005, the Nestle Japan Labor Union, Hyogo-roren, together with Zenroren filed a complaint against Nestle Japan with the OECD National Contact Point established in the Japanese government. In 2007, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira took up the issue of the dispute in the Diet. With this Diet questioning as an opportunity to publicize the matter, procedures toward settlement made progress.
The OECD Guidelines set principles and standards requiring multinational operations to act responsibly in a wide range of areas such as human rights, employment, and environment.
