Prada Japan’s senior retail manager said Saturday she had failed to reach a settlement with the Italian fashion label in a dispute alleging the company harassed her and other employees.
The manager, Rina Bovrisse, told The Japan Times she will prepare to take further legal action against the company.
The case was handled by an industrial tribunal, a streamlined system for resolving labor disputes without trial. If no settlement is reached through the tribunal, the parties involved can opt to proceed with a civil suit to seek a court ruling.
“I am planning to collect more witnesses and file a lawsuit as soon as possible,” Bovrisse said, adding this process may take a month or two.
In December, Bovrisse, who alleged Prada Japan CEO Davide Sesia and Human Resources Manager Hiroyuki Takahashi discriminated against employees based on their appearance, filed a labor complaint with the Tokyo District Court demanding compensation for emotional distress and cancellation of her demotion and leave.
Bovrisse, who has been on involuntary leave since November, was notified Saturday by Prada Japan, the local unit of the world-famous brand, that she will be fired Monday on the grounds that she made false accusations against the company.
Bovrisse has alleged that Sesia asked her to “eliminate” about 15 shop managers and assistant managers he described as being “old, fat, ugly, disgusting or not having the Prada look” last May. Most of them chose to quit after the human resources manager issued transfer orders that amounted to demotions, she said.
In the complaint, Bovrisse alleged that she was verbally abused regarding her appearance by Takahashi, who delivered Sesia’s message to her, and that the company forced its employees to purchase Prada products with their own money.
Prada Japan and Prada Milan headquarters have denied Bovrisse’s allegations.
Uninsured matter of death for 33
At least 33 people died in 17 prefectures in 2009 after not visiting doctors because they lacked national health insurance, a private survey showed Thursday.
The 33 stopped being covered by the national health insurance scheme after failing to pay insurance premiums due to financial difficulties, the Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions said, referring to its survey of member institutions across the country.
The 33 comprised 27 men and six women. Of them, 23 were uninsured, six had invalid health insurance certificates and four were required to pay a medical bill in full before applying for reimbursement minus the deductible. Eighteen of them were unemployed and nine were irregular workers.
In one case, a 39-year-old man in Nagano Prefecture who died of lung cancer refrained from visiting a hospital due to his lack of a health insurance certificate, belatedly visiting a hospital two months after becoming aware of his cancer symptoms.
“The data show the severe situation of low-income people who are facing difficulties in receiving medical services at a time when the economic slump has exacerbated poverty and income disparities,” a federation official said.
The survey also found another 10 people who possessed health insurance certificates had died in six prefectures after refraining from visiting a hospital because they were unable to pay the medical expenses required.
Detainees staging hunger strike
A hunger strike staged by inmates at the West Japan Immigration Center [in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture] entered its fifth day Friday with protesters demanding improved living conditions and protection of their rights, sources said.
The 70 inmates, nearly all the men held at the facility, began fasting on Monday, center officials and supporters of inmates said.
Their main demand was the provisional release of an ill inmate who was not receiving proper treatment within the facility, supporters said.
Applications for provisional release, usually granted out of humanitarian considerations, have often gone unanswered at the center since last year, they said.
An official at the center said the immigration bureau had not changed the way it grants provisional releases.
Toyota workers here get bonus
Toyota Motor Corp. workers are likely to secure bonuses equivalent to at least five months’ wages for this year, sources involved with this spring’s annual labor-management pay negotiations said Thursday.
The Toyota union is seeking annual bonuses worth five months’ wages plus ¥100,000 in this year’s “shunto” talks, while management continues refusing to accept the demand in full as the automaker is caught in serious difficulties amid a series of global recalls, they said.
Toyota management earlier indicated it would grant bonuses amounting to less than five months’ wages but has changed its stance as the firm’s unconsolidated operating loss turned out to be smaller than anticipated.
In addition, Toyota executives consider it necessary to respond to the union’s demand to some extent so employees and management can work together to overcome the current difficulties and regain consumer confidence, the sources said.
Prada accused of maltreatment
Boss wanted ‘old, fat, ugly’ out: manager
A senior manager at Prada Japan has filed a legal complaint against the Italian fashion label, accusing the company of harassment and discrimination based on appearance and alleging it maltreated other employees in the past.
Last May, Prada Japan CEO Davide Sesia visited some of the 40 Prada shops in Japan with Rina Bovrisse, its senior retail manager. Afterward, he asked her to “eliminate” about 15 shop managers and assistant managers he described as being “old, fat, ugly, disgusting or not having the Prada look,” Bovrisse said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.
Tokyo-based lawyer Reiko Shiratori, who specializes mainly in workplace harassment cases, said it would be illegal even for a luxury fashion house to order the dismissal, demotion or unfavorable transfer of a worker on the grounds of physical appearance because that isn’t the only relevant job requirement.
Bovrisse said she is taking this opportunity to raise the issue of harassment against women in the workplace because she wants to improve their working environment.
70 immigration detainees on hunger strike
Fast in Osaka tied to denial of release: activists
At least 70 detainees at the West Japan Immigration Control Center, which has long been criticized by human rights groups and Diet members, have been on a hunger strike since Monday, center officials and volunteers helping them confirmed Thursday.
“Around 70 foreigners began a hunger strike Monday night because they want to be released on a temporary basis,” Norifumi Kishida, an official at the center, said Thursday morning. The center, in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, is providing food but they are refusing to eat, he said.
Hiromi Sano, a human rights activist involved with immigration issues who has been meeting with detainees over the past few days, said some hunger strikers have applied for refugee status.
“They are demanding to know why their applications for release from the center were rejected, even though their refugee claims are being reviewed administratively or judicially, with support from lawyers and legal assistance workers,” she said.
Reports of detainee abuse and harsh conditions at the West Japan Immigration Control Center go back at least a decade. According to an investigation by Kyodo News, 23 detainees at the center had attempted suicide between 2000 and 2004.
Interac and Tokai Board of Education found guilty of illegal dispatch
Cross-posted from the General Union
After more than six months of union action, Interac and Tokai Board of Education have been found guilty of illegal dispatch by the Aichi Prefectural Labor Board. Watch this space – full story in the coming weeks.
Foreigners rally over job security
Hundreds of foreign and Japanese people staged a rally Sunday in Tokyo demanding better working conditions and employment benefits for foreign residents.
At the annual “March in March” event at Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward, Louis Carlet, deputy general secretary of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, said foreign workers have a great need for job security and health care.
“It’s difficult to be a foreigner in any country. But it’s much more difficult when you don’t have job security, when you don’t have health care,” said Carlet, whose union jointly hosted the event with other groups lobbying for improved labor conditions.
One of the biggest problems is that most foreigners are being employed as nonregular workers, and more and more Japanese are being used the same way, he said.
Participants at the rally included people from many different ethnic backgrounds as well as various unions. Organizers said around 400 people took part.
Romsun Pramudito from Indonesia, who chairs the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Indonesia Youth Association, said more job security should be given to foreigner workers.
“We are working very hard and really contributing to the country,” he said, adding he hopes foreigners receive better treatment. He also said foreigners and Japanese should collaborate to find a solution.
Buddhika Weerasinghe, a Fukui-based freelance photojournalist from Sri Lanka, came to the event because he is interested in the problems foreign workers face in Japan.
Weerasinghe said he has heard from foreign workers in the city of Fukui — many of them Chinese working in garment factories — that some received salary cuts without explanation and even experienced physical harassment. “I feel foreigners working in Japan are facing a lot of problems.”
While hopeful that improvement will accompany the change in government last September, little progress has been made, Carlet said.
“We want the new government to take this issue very seriously and make serious change,” he said.
The event also featured a live music by musicians from various countries, including Senegalese drum sessions and Ainu dancing from Hokkaido.
A march planned after the gathering, however, was called off because of the chilly rain, organizers said.
Cuts in national health insurance premiums for people out of work
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma has announced cuts in national health insurance premiums for people who have lost their jobs.
Under a new system beginning in April, the yearly national health insurance premium will be decreased for people who lose their jobs, based on their yearly income. For a couple with one child and a yearly income of 5 million yen, the premium will fall from 347,000 yen a year to 148,000 yen a year — a decrease of nearly 200,000 yen.
Since national health insurance premiums are calculated based on the previous year’s income, there have been cases in which people found it impossible to pay high premiums after losing their jobs and source of income, resulting in a loss of health insurance coverage.
In order to lower the premiums for people who lose their jobs, the enforcement order for the National Health Insurance Law will be revised in March, and a bill to revise the Local Tax Law has been submitted at a regular session of the Diet. Under the changes, it will be possible to calculate insurance premiums based on an amount that is 30 percent of the person’s actual wages earned the previous year.
The measures will apply to people who have employment insurance, and who receive an unemployment benefit after losing work through no choice of their own. People can apply to have their premiums reduced at local government offices, and the measure will apply from the day after the person loses work until the end of the next fiscal year.
The reduction in premiums will remain in force for people who become self-employed after losing their jobs and stay in the national health insurance scheme, but if they sign up with national health insurance associations that employees of small- or medium-sized businesses belong to or with company health insurance programs, the reductions will not apply.
Under the measures, people with a yearly income of 10 million yen, for example, will have their premiums reduced from 590,000 yen a year to 283,000 yen. Those on a yearly income of 3 million yen will have their premiums lowered from 233,000 yen a year to 85,000 yen, while those with a yearly income of 1.5 million yen will have the premiums reduced from 134,000 yen a year to 48,000.
Reductions will also apply to people belonging to health insurance associations who move to the national health insurance program after losing their job. Some 870,000 people including the families of people who lose their jobs are expected to use the new system.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100306p2a00m0na009000c.html
New relief on vanished pensions / Guidelines will allow separate records to verify missing payments
A government panel has announced new support measures for victims of the “vanished pension” scandal that will make it easier for people to verify they paid pension premiums for which records are missing, it was learned Friday.
According to the new guidelines, people who have missing records for corporate employees’ pension payments will be able to have their payments verified at local offices of the Japan Pension Service if they bring in records of payments made to employees’ pension funds or company health insurance associations over the same periods.
Employees’ pension funds are a kind of corporate pension. Operated independently, they manage part of the premiums paid into the employees’ pension plan. Such funds pay a portion of pension benefits on behalf of the government, and keep records of the employees’ pension plans.
After officially deciding on the new guideline at the end of this month, the panel will study the possibility of introducing the new system as early as April.
The third-party committee also has handled pension cases that resulted from mistakes made by companies and the Social Insurance Agency, including people whose payment records were missing because they were transferred to different workplaces within their companies. There also have been cases in which the dates on which people were listed as joining and withdrawing from employees’ pension funds were off by just one day.