JAL gives up lottery scheme for night shift

Warned by the Tokyo labor authorities, Japan Airlines has given up using a lottery to choose flight attendants who can be exempt from the night shift, Akahata of March 11 reported.

The JAL plan to select personnel who will be exempt from late-night shift caused a remain-or-quit concern for cabin attendants who are responsible for child-rearing or parent-caring.

The number of cabin crew who are not included in the late-night shift is 100, but the JAL management tried to limit the number at 75.

The JAL Cabin Attendant Union and the Japanese Communist Party had demanded that the airlines cancel the plan and allow more workers to be exempted from late-night work.

The former state-owned air carrier has rejected the demand that the number be raised, on the grounds that it will be "ineffective."

A Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare official said that setting a limit of the number of workers exempted from late-night shift is a violation of the labor laws and that all employees who seek for the exemption should be eligible. (end)