弁護士加藤佳子東ゼン労組執行委員長奥貫妃文は産後産前休暇とマタハラパタハラを講義する。
Attorney Kato Keiko and Tozen President Hifumi Okunuki teach us about the law and legal cases around maternity leave, and maternity and paternity harassment.
employment
東ゼン大学 – 有給休暇 Tozen Daigaku – Paid Leave
Tozen Organisers Louis Carlet and Orren Frankham discuss the paid leave system in Japanese workplaces.
東ゼン一日行動ビデオ Tozen All Day Protest Videos
東ゼン一日行動(上)
神田にあるシェーン英会話本社前で抗議行動を始めした。
The first part of Tozen’s All Day Protest.
Starting with the Shane Worker’s Union protesting at Shane English School Head Office in Kanda, Tokyo.
東ゼン一日行動(中)
神田にある神田外語大学院前で抗議行動を始めした。
The second part of Tozen’s All Day Protest.
Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) Union protesting at Kanda University of International Studies in Kanda, Tokyo.
東ゼン一日行動(下)
銀座にあるインタラック本社前で抗議行動を始めした。
The third part of Tozen’s All Day Protest,
Interac Union protesting at Interac HQ in Ginza
東ゼン大学ー職場の組織化 – Tozen Daigaku – How to organise your workplace.
Louis Carlet, Tony Dolan, and Orren Frankham present a Tozen Daigaku on how to safely organise your coworkers, what to be careful of, how to build up a union, and their own experiences in building unions.
Japanese Labour Union Act
Japanese Labour Relations Adjustment Act
Japanese Labour Standards Act
Bread & Roses: Osaka Rules Against Taxi Dispatcher for Transphobic Dress Code
SNA (Tokyo) — We were told that the 1985 Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA) marked the “dawn” of a new age for female workers in Japan. No more could employers blithely set up special marry-and-leave retirement systems for their female employees, a practice that had been considered perfectly legal. Several amendments boosted the reach of the law and wording revisions extended protection from gender discrimination and sexual harassment to male workers.
But, in many ways, Japan remains stuck in its old patriarchic ways. Bucking an international trend, Japan still prohibits same-sex marriage and post-nuptial couples must choose one surname, usually the husband’s (unless one partner is a foreign national). And the law retains the word “gender,” leaving unclear what if any protection is extended to LGBTQ workers.
Tozen Union Scores Paid Leave Win Over JCFL
Tozen Union members Todd, Tim, and Mark won a crucial court victory Friday over Japan College of Foreign Languages (Bunsai Gakuen). The school had denied paid leave to the teachers who work on zero-hour contracts, claiming that intervals between the one-semester contracts disrupt the continuity of their employment and therefore preclude any right to paid leave.
Tokyo District Court ruled that their employment is effectively continuous enough to claim the legal minimum allotment of paid holidays. The court ordered JCFL to pay for the paid leave already taken, plus interest, and to put up 1% of the plaintiffs’ legal costs.
Management has taken a hard line against Tozen Union and JCFL Workers’ Union in collective bargaining and is expected to appeal to Tokyo High Court. The union members lost a claim that the school’s refusal to give a copy of its work rules constituted power harassment.
東ゼン労組JCFL(日本外国語専門学校)支部組合員であるトッ
ド、ティム、マークは、学校法人文際学園 日本外国語専門学校（JCFL）を相手に、 自らの有給休暇の権利を求め、裁判の場で闘ってきましたが、20 18年11月2日、東京地方裁判所は、 原告勝訴の判決を下しました。なお、本件では、 組合員に対して就業規則の付与を拒絶し、 その場で書き写すことのみ許可するという対応がパワーハラスメン トであるという主張もしましたが、 こちらは認められませんでした。
学校法人文際学園は、講師の契約を1セメスター＝5か月と設定し
、契約と契約の間の期間を2か月空けることにより、 契約は継続性を持たず、したがって、 すべての講師には有給休暇の権利は一切発生しないという扱いをし てきました。16年勤続の組合員も、これまで有給は「ゼロ」 だったのです。本判決では、たとえ契約と契約との間に2か月のイ ンターバルがあったとしても、 契約の継続性は認められると判断したのであり、 大変重要な内容を含んでいます。 同じような働き方をしている人たちにも、 大きな影響を及ぼすものと思われます。
学園はこれまでと同様、控訴して徹底抗戦するでしょう。
私たちも、団結の力を緩めることなく、 これからも組合を挙げて闘い続けてまいります。
引き続き、みなさまの心強いご支援、ご指導を、
どうぞ宜しくお願い申し上げます。
‘Five-year rule’ triggers ‘Tohoku college massacre’ of jobs
I have discussed the “five-year rule” several times before in this column — the revision of the Labor Contract Law (Rodo Keiyaku Ho) enacted in 2013. Under the amendment, any worker employed on serial fixed-term contracts (yūki koyō) for more than five years can give themselves permanent status. See my earlier stories for more details, particularly my March 2013 column, “Labor law reform raises rather than relieves workers’ worries”
The amendment was supposed to give workers more job security. Or at least that is what lawmakers claimed the purpose was. From the start I had my doubts — doubts that are now being borne out.
‘Same work, same pay’ goal may spark a race to the bottom
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently come out to make the case for “same work, same pay.” Call me a cynic, but I suspect an ulterior motive. For years, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s policies have focused on helping prop up struggling corporations and their managers, with working people treated as more of a nuisance. It is therefore hard to believe that the LDP has suddenly grown a heart that aches over the travails of millions of unemployed, underemployed, underpaid, unpaid and otherwise un-somethinged workers.
