Japan Press Weekly

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2013 April 17 - 23 [LABOR]

Court orders Japanese maker to compensate workers for discrimination

The Tokyo District Court ruled on April 15 that an electric motor manufacturing company should compensate union members for its unfair labor practice against them.

Oriental Motor Corporation, the leading manufacturer of small-sized precision motors, has been hostile to the union members since the union was formed in 1975. The management has tried to destroy the union by removing its members from their regular work assignments, giving them only odd jobs or transferring them to a remote factory.

The union members filed a lawsuit against the company demanding that it stop conducting its unfair labor practices and discriminating against them in wages. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in 2006. The maker paid to them the difference between their wages and other workers’ up until March 1991, but it denied them any additional payment after that date.

Eight union members again filed a lawsuit in 2009 with the Tokyo District Court seeking the back pay compensation for lost wages from April 1991.

The court judgment criticized the corporation for its impenitent attitude and disregarding orders from a labor relations commission, ordering it to pay 500,000 yen to the union and 100,000 to 300,000 yen to each plaintiff in compensation. On the other hand, the court dismissed the claim for the payment of lost wages because the statute of limitation had run out.

Union leader Sakai Kiyoshi said at a news conference following the ruling, “We have fought for the last 38 years to force an end to discrimination against union members. While receiving orders 34 times from the labor relations board and courts to address the issue, the firm has kept treating us badly. We are determined to continue working by appealing to a higher court to make the company pay the total amount of wages we are entitled to receive.”