Union helped construction workers on contract with failed company get unpaid
wages

More than 200 construction workers who worked for a major housing
improvement company received court recognition that they were company
employees entitled to the government-administered relief scheme for workers
of bankrupt companies.

These workers as individuals or owners of small contractor companies
worked for REMOTEX-JAPAN under contract.

REMOTEX went bankrupt in June 2000 and the remaining assets were used to
clear bank mortgages. Workers were told that they could not get their back
pay for five months.

Three prefectural Construction Workers Unions (Doken) of Saitama, Chiba
and Tokyo together with the Japan Construction and Transport Industry
Workers' Solidarity Union (CTSU) helped the workers in negotiations with the
company's bankruptcy administrator.

They demanded that the workers be recognized as REMOTEX employees and be
provided with relief money under the law. The bankruptcy administrator
refused on the grounds that the workers were subcontractors.

In December 2000, a Saitama Doken member's wife testified before the
Tokyo District Court that the workers worked for the company exactly under
the same rules and conditions as the company's regular workers.

The presiding judge of the court said that the circumstances should be
taken into consideration.

As a result, a government scheme for paying unpaid wages for bankrupt
companies was applied to REMOTEX contractors, who were paid a total of 230
million yen by the government.

In no case in the past has such a large amount of unpaid wages been paid
by the government. CTSU vice secretary-general said that this is as
effective as a judicial precedent. (end)