Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 22 - 28 [LABOR]

JCP calls for an end to electronics makers’ forcible retirement policy

Japanese Communist Party Upper House member Tamura Tomoko on August 27 urged the government to investigate major electronics manufacturers’ ongoing attempt to force their employees to accept early retirement.

At a House audit committee meeting, she also called for an immediate halt to the illegal practice in the industry’s restructuring scheme affecting more than 120,000 workers. In response to Tamura, Labor Minister Komiyama Yoko indicated the need to “hold onsite investigations and issue necessary instructions.”

The JCP representative revealed that in order to cut 10,000 employees, NEC managers hold as many as 10 one-on-one interviews with each targeted worker in 2 months and urge them to retire.

They even have such interviews with hospitalized workers or with workers suffering from serious states of depression. “This is not just offering them an option,” she stressed.

Komiyama made clear the government recognition that it is illegal for employers to forcibly pressure their workers to accept early retirement.