Has a backlash by temporary workers summarily dismissed from their auto jobs in Japan begun?
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Four former workers at an Isuzu Motors factory in Tochigi Prefecture on Tuesday filed suit at court to seek reinstatement of contracts terminated before their terms by three temp staff agencies.
The four, aged between 37 and 48, were dismissed from the Tochigi factory at the end of last year, and filed with the Tochigi Branch of the Utsunomiya District Court for an injunction to get their jobs back as well as temporary payments of wages, Kyodo News reported.
They were following similar court action filed in December by five workers at Isuzu’s Fujisawa plant in Kanagawa Prefecture who had contracts terminated by their agencies.
In November, Isuzu Motors said contracts would end on 26 December for around 1,400 workers at the Tochigi and Fujisawa factories who were on fixed-term contracts with the automaker itself as well as on loan from temp agencies.
Isuzu Motors later retracted dismissals for the workers which it hired but temp agency staffers were excluded from the move, the news agency noted.
Isuzu Motors declined to comment.
A lawyer representing the Tochigi four said: ”Many people have no savings but have debts. We would like to generate a trend to enable workers on loan from temp agencies to claim their rights.”
Bearing maker NSK on Tuesday said it would axe some 2,000 temps’ jobs as terms expire in March.
