Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 1 - 14 [LABOR]

Laid-off workers sue Foreign Correspondents’ Club

Nine out of 36 laid-off workers in the food and bar services of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) on August 8 filed a request with the Tokyo District Court to issue an injunction to nullify their dismissals and order the club to pay their unpaid wages.

The FCCJ in late July terminated the contracts of 10 “contract” and 26 “part-time” employees in order to outsource the club’s food and bar (F&B) operations. Most of them were employed there for 5-10 years.

The Union of the Press Club (UPC) says that both the contract and part-time workers basically do the same work as regular F&B employees.

The FCCJ has been replacing regular employees with non-regular contingent workers for the past 20 years or so. Currently, the number of regular employees accounts for only about one-fourth of the FCCJ workforce.

A terminated male worker, 33, complained at a press conference, “The FCCJ doesn’t see us as human beings,” and called on the club to fulfill its responsibility as an employer.