Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 10 - 16 [LABOR]

More temporary workers at Isuzu go to court demanding withdrawal of their dismissals

Three fixed-term contract workers at Isuzu Motors Fujisawa Plant in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on December 9 filed a petition to impose injunctions against their dismissals with the Yokohama District Court.

Miura Yoshinori, a 27-year-old fixed-term contract worker, and two other workers, who are members of the Isuzu Motors Brach of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union are demanding that the dismissal notices be invalidated and that a temporary payment be made to them in wages and bonuses that should be paid at the end of each contract term.

Earlier, two fixed-term contract workers and JMIU Isuzu Motors Branch members at Tochigi Plant on December 4 filed a lawsuit with the Utsunomiya District Court.

Miura and two others have worked as fixed-term contract workers with their contracts renewed repeatedly. Their current contracts are to expire on April 7 next year.

Isuzu Motors on November 17 announced that it will dismiss 1,400 temporary and fixed-term contract workers on December 26, more than three months earlier than the contract term’s expiration date.

Referring to the Labor Contract Law provision prohibiting employers from dismissing fixed-term workers before the contracts expire unless they can cite “inevitable” reasons, including a financial crisis, the three workers in their petition to the court pointed out that there is at present no financial crisis that can justify dismissals, citing the fact that the company is expected to make 60 billion yen in current profits and will pay 10.1 billion yen as dividends to shareholders.

They said that the layoffs should be overturned because Isuzu’s layoff plan doesn’t meet the four requirements for dismissals established by judicial precedents, which include necessity of dismissal, efforts to avoid dismissal, and having discussions with workers.

At a news conference later in the day, Miura said, “I’m struggling to make ends meet, but I do not know how I can manage to live. I decided to fight by joining the union because it is hard to accept that all of us are going to get thrown out into the street.”