Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 18 - 24 [LABOR]

NTT workers win abolition of downsizing system

Workers of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) won the abolition of its restructuring system which dismisses workers and reemploys them at sharply reduced wages.

Each company of the NTT Group on April 5 notified the Telecommunication Industry Workers’ Union (Tsushin-roso) of the system’s discontinuation.

Under the downsizing scheme, workers in the 4 companies of the NTT Group, such as NTT East and NTT West, are fired when they reach the age of 50 and then employed by other subsidiary companies in the NTT Group with wages reduced by as much as 30%. NTT applied this rule to 110,000 employees from 2002.

Tsushin-roso had requested NTT to repeal the system again and again, insisting that it makes the workers unmotivated and prevents them from passing down their rich knowledge and technical skills to newer workers.

NTT workers who refused to abide by the rule were transferred to remote workplaces as a warning to other employees. They brought their cases against NTT to court in various parts of Japan, and won court decisions ruling that the unjustified transfer of workers is illegal.

Tsushin-roso Chair Usami Toshikazu said, “Our tenacious struggle lasting over ten years which has been supported by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and other unions has brought about our great success at last.”