Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 September 4 - 10 [LABOR]

IBM’s ‘black’ labor practice adversely affects working mothers

IBM Japan publicizes that the company provides a work environment in which female workers can sufficiently display their abilities and receive support for child-rearing. However, what the company actually does to working mothers is to dismiss them with its “lockout” tactic, thus appearing to be a kind of “black corporation”.

A female worker in her 40s who was laid off from IBM Japan’s Osaka office said, “Following the company’s unfair dismissal, I thought it was time to stand up to them.” In August, she filed a lawsuit with the Osaka District Court against the company, demanding the withdrawal of her dismissal.

The woman entered the company in 1992 after completing graduate courses in math. As the reason for deciding to work at IBM Japan, she explained that she believed that IBM Japan provides a gender-free, female-friendly work environment because it is an affiliate of IBM, the world’s largest technology company based in the United States which is regarded as a nation of freedom and equity.

Being assigned to a job as system engineer, she engaged in her work with enthusiasm.

Things changed after she took maternity and child-rearing leaves. The company repeatedly gave her unfairly low marks in a periodic employee performance review and forced her to accept early retirement.

It was in May 2006 when IBM Japan began holding private interviews with her to push the woman to quit her job voluntarily. After she joined the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU) in September in order to protest against the company’s pressure on her to retire early, the company stopped conducting the private interviews. In January the next year, however, she was suddenly degraded from an IT specialist position and then was locked out of her workplace in June this year.

Female workers at child-rearing age are harried by IBM Japan to give up their careers, JMIU pointed out.

JMIU cited two recent examples: a female worker in her 20s who just returned to work after child care leave was informed by her boss that she will always be evaluated as the worst performer in the company; and a woman on child rearing leave received a distant transfer order.

The woman fighting against IBM Japan on September 4 for the first time since her lay-off took part in the union’s street action in front of the company’s building to demand withdrawal of her “lockout dismissal”. She said, “Although IBM kicked me out of my job, I still love the company. With the union’s support, I will keep on fighting for a better future for women workers.”