Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 15 - 21 TOP3 [LABOR]

Sony dismisses many disaster-hit workers, while discussing restoration

Sony Corporation, a member of the governmental Reconstruction Conference, has announced its intent to dismiss over 150 temporary workers at its subsidiary near Sendai, alleging a need to downsize business operations due to the Great East Japan Disaster.

Sony’s affiliate, Sendai Technology Center (Sendai TEC), had its ground floor submerged due to the tsunami. Sony, on April 27, published a plan to transfer 280 regular workers to outside Miyagi Prefecture and to terminate its contracts with over 150 temps out of the nearly 1,500 Sendai TEC workers.

Many temps right after the March 11 earthquake found it difficult to go to the office from their damaged homes or temporary shelters in order to scrape mud out of the ground floor and to help with the restoration work at the office.

Most of these temps have worked at the same job for more than five years, long enough to be legally employed as regular workers. Some of them have worked for 12 years under the guise of contracted workers or as temporary workers.

The annual average income for temporary workers at Sony is 2.7 million yen. Using just four hundred million yen a year would maintain the jobs of all 150 temps.

Sony, as of the end of March 2010, had 3.41 trillion yen in internal reserves (including 1.2 trillion yen in cash or cash equivalent). Executive compensation to Sony President Howard Stringer is 825 million yen, and to Vice President Chuhachi Ryoji, 213 million yen.

The Sony workers’ union Sendai branch stressed that the company is financially robust and able to maintain jobs in the disaster-hit area.

Sony is represented in the governmental Reconstruction Conference by its Vice President Chuhachi, who is from Miyagi. Local governments in Miyagi have been shocked by the cold-hearted response of a major corporation with high public status announcing a plan which threatens victims’ jobs and will deal a heavy blow to revitalizing the region.

The Sony workers’ union Sendai branch and the Miyagi Prefectural Spring Struggle Joint Conference in May made representations to the Miyagi Prefecture and Tagajo City governments, the location of the Sendai TEC, for the municipalities to urge Sony to retract the plan. The Japanese Communist Party Miyagi Prefectural assembly members’ group and JCP Tagajo City Assembly members accompanied the group making the representations.

Tagajo City Mayor Kikuchi Kenjiro and Tagajo City Assembly Chair Ishibashi Gen’ichi on June 8 visited the Sony Corp. main office in Tokyo to urge the company to stop downsizing their business operations in Miyagi.

JCP House of Representatives member Takahashi Chizuko in the Diet on May 11 called on large corporations to be responsible in maintaining jobs, referring to Sony as an example of irresponsibility.

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hosokawa Ritsuo said, “A flooded plant building alone cannot justify dismissing workers.” “A large corporation should firmly accept its social responsibility. I am urging the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren or JBF) to maintain jobs.”