Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 13 - 19 [LABOR]

Non-regular workers sue Nissan over dismissals

Five contingent workers at Nissan Motor-affiliate companies on May 12 filed a lawsuit with the Yokohama District Court demanding that their dismissals be retracted.

The plaintiffs, three temporary workers and two fixed-term contract workers, are members of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU).

They also demanded that the companies pay them for damages as well as compensation equivalent to wages they would have been paid if they had not been fired.

A 36-year-old woman worked as a temporary employee at Nissan Motor Technical Center for more than six years by having her three-month contract renewed 25 times.

A 35 year-old temporary worker at a Nissan Yokohama plant had been ordered twice to work on a fixed-term contract during his service for three years and six months. This was in order to evade the Worker Dispatch Law that requires companies to offer full-time positions to temporary workers after three years of continuous employment.

In February 2008, he became unable to work due to continuously having to carry heavy objects. When he filed for workers’ compensation, Nissan and his staff agency changed his status as a temporary worker at Nissan Shatai, aiming to nullify his complaint.

At a press conference, the plaintiffs’ lawyers stressed that Nissan Motor President Carlos Ghosn’s annual salary is 1 to 1.2 billion yen and the company has 3.3 trillion yen in internal reserves. Demanding that the companies hire the plaintiffs as full-time workers, the lawyers claimed that the dismissals have failed to meet the four requirements of dismissal and thus the employers have abused the right of dismissal.