A court on April 2 ruled that the dismissals by a photo finish service chain operator of eight young workers lacked legitimacy and ordered 45 Corporation to pay them unpaid monthly wages since they were fired last November.
Yamashita Yoshiharu, presiding judge of the Saitama District Court, acknowledged almost all the claims filed by the workers seeking the reversal of their dismissals by 45 Corporation and ordered the back pay payment.
45 Corporation last January created 12 separate companies through a break-up and merged them again after dismissing the eight workers.
The corporation tried to disclaim responsibility for the dismissal by arguing that the dismissal was done by separate companies, not by 45 Corporation.
The judge, however, pointed out that the corporation presumably set up these separate companies as dummies and ruled that the dismissals had no legitimate basis.
The young workers of 45 Corporation learned on the Internet about Togashi Renzo, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors who deals with labor problems, and decided to contact him to help solve the problems of forced holiday work and overtime work without wages.
With help from the local union federation affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and a group of workers' unions, 14 other workers filed a lawsuit against 45 Corporation with a district court in Saitama and Gunma prefectures, demanding the withdrawal of their dismissals. (end)
