Japan Press Weekly

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2011 September 14 - 20 [LABOR]

Unjust court judgment over fired Panasonic worker

The Fukui District Court on September 14 gave an unjust ruling denying both compensation and regular employee status to a Panasonic-affiliated temporary worker who was forced to work for over three years as a disguised contract worker.

The district court stated that Panasonic Electronic Devices Japan (PEDJ) using the worker in a manner contrary to the law is “presumable” but that the act was not strictly illegal.

Kawamoto Takeshi (33) in Fukui Prefecture was dismissed by Panasonic Electronic Devices Japan (PEDJ) in 2008. He reported to the Fukui labor bureau that the company used him as a disguised contract worker and thus violated the Worker Dispatch Law limiting the term of contract for temporary workers to three years. The labor bureau determined the act as illegal and instructed PEDJ for redress.

PEDJ, however, did not offer direct employment to Kawamoto although the company is obliged to offer direct employment to temps who work full-time for more than three years. Instead, it dismissed him after turning him into a fixed-term contract worker. Kawamoto filed a suit in March 2009 against the unfair labor practice.

After the trial, Kawamoto said to supporters that he would like to appeal the ruling and develop a campaign to overturn the judgment. The lawyers’ bench criticized the ruling as completely ignoring the unlawful exploitation of temporary workers.

Disguising a temporary worker as an independent contractor is a tactic used by employers in order to evade the Worker Dispatch Law obliging employers to offer direct employment after the service of three years.