Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 26 - July 2 [LABOR]

Private school teachers again win court order banning school’s unfair labor practices

The Tokyo High Court on June 27 upheld a lower court decision acknowledging the private school’s order on 10 teachers to stand guard for long hours as an unfair labor practice, and rejected the school’s appeal.

The 10 teachers are union members at Tsurukawa High School in Tokyo’s Machida City. In 2008, under the pretext of improving the school’s security, the school principal ordered teachers to take turns standing guard outside the school’s premises for 50 minutes at a time. Even though the order was for security purposes, they were placed at locations where there were no students.

The 10 teachers were ordered to take more turns at guard duty than their non-union colleagues. Some of them stood guard duty 31 times a week.

The court pointed out that the standing guard duty order has trampled on the plaintiffs’ right to organize as well as harmed their personal rights which consist of their pride, honor, and enthusiasm to teach, and ordered the school to pay the plaintiffs a total of 12.27 million yen in compensation.

After the ruling, the plaintiffs expressed to reporters their demand for the educational administration to take appropriate measures to stop the principal’s arrogant school operations.

Related past article:
> School’s order on teachers to stand guard is illegal: court[October 4, 2012]