[Excerpt translation from Japanese to English provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.]

"News about the suppression of the Kansai Nama Kon Labour Union", 2 March 2020

...On February 26 [2020], the Osaka City Labour Commission determined that six day workers of the Fujiwara Ready-Made Concrete Transport company had experienced employment discrimination. The commission also ruled that the employer had violated labour laws by refusing to participate in collective bargaining, which was requested by union members after July 2018. Decisions are outlined below: 

1. The employer must ensure that the four union members who are day workers have an insurance book and can be employed at the same frequency as members of other labour unions.

2. The employer must compensate the four union members for 60 percent of the income that they would have earned between April 2018 and the time when they were rehired by the company (Note 1).

3. The employer should have responded to collective bargaining requests submitted by union members on 4 July 2018 (Note 2).

4. Other

Note 1: The commission also ordered the employer to compensate two members who had left the union. The compensation amount was set at 60 percent of the income that these employees would have earned until they left the union.

Note 2: The union protested that the employer had decreased the number of working days for its members and asked for improvements. However, the employer did not respond to calls for negotiation, saying that they were not obligated to negotiate on the issue of day workers.

Fujiwara Ready-Made Concrete Transport denied employment and refused to participate in collective bargaining with union members at the same time that the police were suppressing the activities of the Kansai Ready-Mixed Concrete Union branch, which is part of the Osaka Kouiki Ready-mixed Concrete Cooperative Association. In December 2017, the Kansai Ready-Mixed Concrete Union branch and the Osaka branch of the All Port and Harbour Union launched a general strike asking employers to fulfill their promise of increasing members’ pay. However, the Osaka Kouiki Ready-Mixed Concrete Cooperative Agency did not respond, instead rolling out an all-out combative approach that involved criticizing the strikes as obstruction of business and allegations against Kansai union branch as a criminal organization.  On 23 January 2018, the agency prohibited any contact, negotiations, or face-to-face discussions with the Kansai union branch. It also ordered that any member company that goes against these rules would face severe punishment. Furthermore, in February 2018, the group announced that it would prohibit any business with transport companies with ties to the Kansai union. While Fujiwara Ready-Mixed Concrete Transport is the only company that has been held legally liable in this specific case, it can also be inferred from the Labour Commission’s decision that the Osaka Kouiki Ready-Mixed Concrete Cooperative Agency also bears responsibility.

• This ruling is the third legal victory, preceded by two other cases—the Tokushima incident and Kamo Concrete incident. The Kansai Ready-Mixed Concrete incident, which involved police suppression of labour union activity, has resulted in a number of cases that have been submitted to the Osaka City Labour Commission. So far, the commission has ruled in favor of the union in the Tokushima incident, which occurred in October 2019, and the Kamo Concrete incident, which occurred in December 2019. This marks the third victory for the union following these decisions...