Angry workers sit in at Tokyo District Court demanding an end to discrimination against non-regular employees

 

Angry workers wearing “Hats of burning anger” with a massage, “Flower (or dignity) to non-regular employees!” appeared for the first time in front of the Tokyo District Court on Dec. 12. They represented the voices of casual workers’ fury of not receiving any severance pay nor even a bouquet of flowers upon retirement. The lawsuit, where four non-regular women workers of “Metro Commerce” (Tokyo Metro Kiosk) called on the company to treat them equally as the regular employees under Article 20 of Labor Contract Act, is now at a final stage. They launched a sit-in strike on Dec. 12 to last through Dec. 15. “You can see it most clearly how we are discriminated against when it comes to bonuses,” the Metro Commerce union president USHIRO Ryoko said. “We, contract employees B (non-regular), receive only a 100,000 yen as bonus, whereas a regular employee receives over 600,000 yen. It is unfair that such a big difference exists when we do the same work. We’ve had enough; it’s time that we rose up to fight a legal battle.” But the outlook for the lawsuit seems hardly hopeful. On the same day, a number of members of the Postal Industry Workers Union (PIWU) fighting against the same issue came to support them. A non-regular university lecturer also took the microphone to say that the bonus discrepancy between regular and non-regular workers is six fold. Fury over prevalent discrimination against non-regular workers spread across the society from the sit-in protest at Tokyo District Court. (By M) 

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怒りのメラメラハット裁判所前に登場～非正規差別を絶つ判決を！
12月12日、東京裁判所前に初めて「怒りのメラメラハット」が登場した。そこには「非正規労働者に花（尊厳）を！」と書かれている。定年退職しても退職金もなく、花束一つもらえない非正規の怒りを表現していた。東京メトロ売店「メトロコマース」の非正規女性4人が差別是正を求めた労働契約法20条裁判は、大詰め。12日～15日までの連続座り込みが始まった。後呂良子委員長が訴える。「差別が顕著にあらわれるのが賞与。私たち契約社員Ｂは1回の賞与が10万円。一方正社員は60万円以上だ。同じ仕事でこんな差はおかしい。もう我慢の限界で裁判に立ち上がった」。しかし裁判の行方は厳しい。この日は同じ問題でたたかっている郵政ユニオンが多数応援にやってきた。また非正規の大学教員は「正規と6倍の格差がある」と飛び入りでマイクアピールした。社会に蔓延する非正規差別への怒りが裁判所前に広がっていた。（M）

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