Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2009 April 15 - 21 [LABOR]

Former fixed-term contract worker sues Honda

A former fixed-term contract worker at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. on April 17 filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court demanding that the company offer him a full-time position because his dismissal after 104 times of renewal of his contract is illegal.

The plaintiff, Sakurai Hitoshi, is a member of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU) Tochigi Regional Branch.

The Honda Tochigi Factory in Tochigi Prefecture repeated issuing short-term contracts to Sakurai from December 1997. His contract term ranged from one month to three months. Honda used to dismiss him after a period of one year and reemployed him five to thirty days later. At the end of December 2008, Honda decided to terminate his contract following its decision to cut production.

In the petition, Sakurai pointed out that his dismissal is invalid because Honda abuses the right to dismiss and fails to meet the “four requirements for dismissals for downsizing,” which include a clear explanation of the need for dismissal.

In addition, the petition criticized Honda for evading the law by setting the blank period for denying the continuous use of Sakurai.

At a news conference, Sakurai argued, “It is unacceptable that Honda laid me off simply because I’m a fixed-term contract worker, without taking my 11 years of work and contribution into consideration.”