Japan Press Weekly

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2019 February 27 - March 5 [LABOR]

Non-regular postal workers demand Japan Post abide by court rulings ordering an end to regular/non-regular gaps

An organization consisting of several postal workers' unions on March 4 submitted 25,858 signatures to the Japan Post headquarters in Tokyo, demanding equal treatment between regular and non-regular employees and also demanding full-time regular positions for those who currently work under non-regular contracts.

This organization is a nationwide joint council working to fight against restructuring schemes in the postal industry and working to expand Japan's labor movement.

Japan Post Holdings now has about 400,000 employees in total, and about 190,000 of them are non-regular workers. According to the council, postal work cannot function without non-regular staff.

After the submission of the signatures, in front of the building where the Japan Post HQ is located, postal workers in non-regular positions from various regions in Japan spoke in turn, "Though working for 12 years, I still can't obtain a permanent position" (Kinki), "It's the responsibility of corporations to offer regular positions to all workers who want to become regular employees" (Shikoku), and "With the use of just a bit of Japan Post's internal reserves, our hourly wages would increase significantly " (Tokai).

Japan Post, some years ago, was judicially ordered to redress regular/non-regular disparities in terms of allowances, holidays, and sick leave. Himaki Naoya, the leader of the Postal Industry Workers' Union (PIWU), accused Japan Post of ridiculing the original purpose of the court order by adversely revising the working conditions of regular workers to ostensibly follow the order to narrow the gap.

A related rally took place later in the Lower House members' office building with the participation of Japanese Communist Party Motomura Nobuko (LH), JCP Upper House member Yamazoe Taku, and Fukushima Mizuho (UH) of the Social Democratic Party of Japan.

Past related articles:
> Osaka court judges Japan Post’s discrimination against fixed-term workers to be unfair [February 22, 2018]
> Japan Post ordered to end its unfair treatment of non-regular workers [September 15, 2017]