"コンビニオーナー、「団交権」求めて控訴「裁判所はもっと実態見て」" 17 June 2022

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre ]

In a court case concerning whether convenience store franchise (FC) owners are entitled to collective bargaining, the Union of Convenience Store Franchisees, an association of owners, appealed against a Tokyo District Court ruling on 17 June that did not recognise the right to collective bargaining.

It all began when the group's Seven-Eleven owners applied to Seven-Eleven for collective bargaining and were refused; in 2014, the Okayama Prefectural Labour Relations Commission ordered collective bargaining on the grounds that the owners were workers under the Trade Union Law, but in 2019, the Central Labour Relations Commission reversed the order and denied their status as workers, so the group went to court to seek revocation of the order.

[...]

Concerning convenience stores, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) set up a study group on new style of convenience stores in 2019; in its 2020 report, it pointed out the overworking of owners and other issues.

In the same year, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) also published the results of a survey of some 12,000 convenience stores nationwide.

The Union of Convenience Store Franchisees submitted the results of the FTC survey as evidence in this trial, arguing that the owners could not be recognised as independent operators due to the length of their working hours and other factors. However, the court ruled that the survey could not be considered as showing the actual situation because only about 30% responded to the survey.

On the appeal, Keiji Sato, executive committee chairman of the Union of Convenience Store Franchisees, said: 'The district court decision ignored and regressed on previous discussions. We hope they will look at the actual situation more closely".