Support workers at Tokyo curry shops facing job losses, demanding unpaid wages

 

Indian and Bangladeshi workers at curry restaurants in Tokyo

are on the brink of job and housing losses as the holding company

decided to close the restaurants as of June 20.

15 workers of Shanti, an Indian curry chain with five outlets in Tokyo,

have not been paid properly for last two years,

not at all this year. Many of them lost accommodation due to a fire in

February and have since been staying in the restaurants.

The president of the company recently demanded them in writing to leave

by June 17, while the workers maintain that they are willing to leave as

soon as they receive the salaries and overtime totaling 62.96 million

yen the company owes to them. They have filed complaints at a labor

standard office in Tokyo  to recover the unpaid wages through

negotiation, but the company has not responded so far. The difficulties

of the workers who are threatened with eviction are exacerbated by the

lack of their abilities in the Japanese language. Some customers who are

supporting these workers have opened a Twitter account to disseminate

information. Follow @support4shanti and support the workers!  

 

They are now formally organized!～Latest situation as of June 23

The workers established on June 23 an independent union with

a help of a Japanese labor lawyer. After the initial news came out,

the support to them surged: the twitter account followers quickly

reached over 2000, mass media and more independent journalists

visited the restaurants to cover this topic. On June 22, three workers

who are now the president, the vice president and the general-secretary

of the union appeared on the Labornet TV program. (By M)

Archive video of the Labornet TV (thesection starts around 58:00)

インドカレー店「シャンティ」従業員が解雇・追い出しの危機！

東京の駒込・大塚などに5店舗を展開するインドカレー店「シャンティ」の外国人従業員（15名）が、6月20日付けで店舗閉鎖・解雇を迫られています。しかもインド・バングラデシュのかれらには、2年間まともに給料が払われていません。今年に入ってからは1円ももらっていないといいます。また住むところを奪われ、現在店舗で寝泊まりしてます。会社・児玉政之社長は、文書で「6月17日までに店舗から退去しなさい」と通告してきました。シャンティ従業員は「未払い賃金・残業代」総額6296万円（1人平均420万円）を払えばすぐに出ていくといいます。現在、未払い賃金支払いを求めて池袋労基署に訴え、会社との話し合いを求めています。しかし会社からの返事はなく「追い出し」の危機が迫っています。店の売上げは順調で、閉鎖の理由は不明。従業員は日本語が不自由ですが、常連客の協力で15日にツイッターを開設し情報発信を始めました。かれらの声を聞いてください。（M）

 動画（従業員の訴え 4分）