Japan Press Weekly

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2015 November 25 - December 1 [LABOR]

Court nullifies orchestra musicians’ dismissals

The Yokohama District Court on November 26 issued a ruling in support of two contrabass players’ demand that their dismissal by the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra be nullified.

The two former orchestra players, Fusegi Kenji and Sugimoto Tadashi, are members of the Kanagawa prefectural general union for public sector workers.

The court ruling accepted the plaintiffs’ claim that the orchestra discharged them by making unfair evaluations of their performance skills and attitude. The ruling, however, denied the plaintiffs’ other claim that the orchestra carried out the dismissal with the aim of weakening the union, and that this constitutes an unfair labor practice.

At a rally held after the ruling, Sugimoto noted that Kanagawa Prefecture outsourced the orchestra’s operation under the pretext of financial difficulties, which has led to the participation of people unfamiliar with music in the orchestra management. The prefectural government should be highly blamed for this, he added.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer showed his disappointment about the court denial of recognition of unfair labor practice. The lawyer also said that the orchestra should move to settle the labor dispute by accepting the court ruling and the local labor commission’s recognition of the orchestra’s act as an unfair labor practice.

Past related articles:
> Labor relations authority: Kanagawa orchestra’s dismissal of two musicians found to be unfair labor practice [July 25, 2014]
> 2 union musicians sue orchestra for their dismissals [August 2, 2013]
> Orchestra musicians seek cancellation of unfair dismissals [November 9, 2012]