Japan Press Weekly

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2008 July 23 - 29 [LABOR]

Nestlé harasses workers victorious in court battle

A Nestlé Japan factory in the western Japanese city of Himeji has been harassing two workers who returned to their jobs after a Supreme Court decision in favor of them in a lawsuit over their status. The company apparently has been trying to force them to voluntarily leave the company.

Aota Katsuyoshi, 58, is a Nestlé worker at its Himeji Factory. In 2003, when he had to take care of his sick wife, Nestlé ordered him to move to another plant, which was too far for him to commute to.

Together with another worker who was also told to move to the plant despite having a sick mother in need of nursing care, Aota filed a lawsuit against Nestlé Japan, seeking an injunction against the transfer order.

In April this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Nestlé was abusing power in personnel affairs and that the transfer orders to the two workers were invalid.

After their victorious legal struggle, they returned to work for the first time in five years.

However, Nestlé Himeji Factory began giving the two workers a test everyday as part of a training program. Their superior would yell at them when their test scores were low.

When they were ordered to pull weeds at a Nestlé 100 car capacity parking lot, another boss told them to finish in two hours while using abusive language and knowing that it would take at least four hours to complete the work. When they made a minor mistake doing work which they were not used to, more than ten people surrounded the two and yelled, “Quit right now!” Another boss gave Aoki a dig in the chest and told him to leave the company.

Actually, Nestlé already has a “criminal record.” Another Nestlé factory intimidated workers, who had won a reversal of their dismissals in the Supreme Court, into voluntarily leaving the company.

The Nestlé Japan Labor Union and their supporters’ organization are trying to build a bigger support network for them with the slogan, “Stop human rights violations.”

Aota said, “Nestlé Japan is using every means available to kick me out, but I won’t give in.” - Akahata, July 29, 2008