Tokyo court finds pay gaps between regular, non-regular workers unjustifiable

September 15, 2017

TOKYO- Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday that gaps in pay between regular and nonregular employees at Japan Post Co. are unjustifiable.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by three nonregular Japan Post workers seeking a total of 15 million yen in compensation for what they claimed was unfair treatment accorded them despite their doing equal work with regular workers.

Presiding judge Shigeru Haruna recognized that gaps in some allowances are unreasonable and concluded that Japan Post violates the labor contract law banning unreasonable gaps in labor conditions.

Haruna said it is unfair that nonregular Japan Post workers do not receive allowances for work during year-end and New Year holidays and those for housing, paid to regular employees who will not be transferred.

The judge ordered the unit of Japan Post Holdings Co. to pay the plaintiffs a total of some 920,000 yen.

The judge also said that there is no rational reason for not giving summer and winter holidays and granting paid absence due to illness only to nonregular workers.

Haruna judged that gaps in summer and year-end bonuses are somewhat reasonable as a personnel policy. He also turned down a petition for applying equal working conditions to the nonregular workers.

The three plaintiffs are hourly workers engaged in delivering mail. Japan Post currently has some 190,000 non-regular employees.

The plaintiffs' lawyers welcomed the ruling, describing it as a breakthrough that raises hopes for the future of non-regular workers.

Kiyoshi Asakawa, 46, one of the plaintiffs, said he was unable to accept a situation in which no extra money was paid to nonregular workers during the busy year-end and New Year period even though they were doing the exactly same work as regular employees.

Japan Post said the company will decide its response after examining the ruling. Jiji Press