Japan Press Weekly

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2014 May 28 - June 3 [LABOR]

JAL’s massive cuts in maintenance jobs affect flight safety

The Transport Ministry has recently disclosed that Japan’s flagship carrier, Japan Airlines, caused 16 major mistakes in the maintenance and repair of its aircraft.

Taking one example of the 16, a maintenance worker at the end of March forgot to install a part to the thrust reserve component of a Boeing 777’s right engine. The plane, however, was used on domestic routes without the part for about a month. The failure of installing the part was finally discovered on May 8 during a daily checkup of the plane.

Taking the situation seriously, JAL suspended heavy maintenance work on all its aircraft for five days from May 19 to examine whether the basic routine checkups are properly performed.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kokuta Keiji on May 30 at a House Transport Committee meeting took up this issue. “Carrier’s harsh downsizing measures brought about a shortage of skilled maintenance workers. This has become an obstacle to increase workers’ awareness of flight safety and skill levels,” Kokuta pointed out.

JAL in 2010 conducted massive job cuts in the name of corporate restructuring. At its maintenance department, 1,500 maintenance staff voluntarily or involuntarily accepted the company’s early retirement program. The carrier held personal interviews mainly with maintenance workers aged 45 and older in order to pressure them to accept early retirement, which resulted in the shortage of skilled maintenance workers. In addition, JAL shut down its subsidiary dealing with maintenance of JAL aircraft and all 144 maintenance workers lost their jobs.

Kokuta said that any mistake in aircraft maintenance can affect safe aviation. Transport Minister Ota Akihiro in reply said that the company should improve the work environment without delay.