Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 2 - 8 [LABOR]

Another union member sues IBM Japan for ‘lockout’ dismissal

A former worker at IBM Japan, who was unjustly dismissed by the company, filed a lawsuit on July 3 with the Tokyo District Court, seeking the annulment of his dismissal.

The worker has been fighting another court battle, demanding the cancellation of the company’s unfair pay cuts.

Last year, the tech giant unilaterally carried out 10% to 15% cuts in wages for workers who were in the bottom 15% in terms of relative performance evaluation. Nine of those employees, who are members of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU), sued the maker for full payment of their wages.

On March 10 this year, IBM Japan again announced a pay cut policy similar to the last one. Following the announcement, the corporation abruptly notified three of the above nine plaintiffs of their dismissals just before the closing time and immediately locked out them. One of the three brought an action against the company, calling for his reinstatement.

The high-tech manufacturer insists that it discharged the three employees because of their “poor job performance”.

The JMIU, a member union of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), stressed that the maker intentionally fired these three workers in retaliation for their legal action over pay cuts. Pointing to the fact that the firm regarded a female worker in its Osaka office as an “incompetent” employee and sacked her because she had used a shortened work-hour system to raise her child, the union argued that the discharged workers’ “poor job performance” is totally groundless.

So far, at least 45 workers across the country have been suffering from the unfair dismissals by IBM Japan. Of the 45 workers, 30 are members of the JMIU.

Past related article:
> Labor authorities urge IBM to halt ‘lockout’ dismissals [April 13, 2014]