Ex-social insurance agency workers file claim with national personnel authority demanding revocation of their dismissals

Japan Press Weekly

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Ex-social insurance agency workers file claim with national personnel authority demanding revocation of their dismissals

Calling for the revocation of their dismissals, 31 All Health and Welfare Ministry Workers’ Union (Zenkosei) members, who were dismissed due to the closure of the Social Insurance Agency (SIA), on January 18 filed a complaint with the National Personnel Authority.

The Hatoyama Cabinet late last year abolished and privatized the SIA which had run the public pension office. The Japan Pension Service succeeded the SIA and began operation on January 1. Most of the employees of the Japan Pension Service were former SIA workers, but they lost their status as government employees.

The Japan Pension Service rejected about 2,500 former SIA workers’ job applications under the pretext of a history of reprimands, including disciplinary action. Although the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry took measures to help these 2,500 workers find new jobs, 525 workers could not find a new job and lost their jobs at the time when the SIA was shut down. 70 percent of the 525 workers had no record of reprimands. This showed that the Japan Pension Service’s criteria for hiring staff were murky.

While the Japan Pension Service refused to hire 2,500 former SIA workers under the unclear standards for employment, it employed more than 1,000 new workers.

The petition pointed out that the Japan Pension Service should employ all of the former SIA workers and that their dismissals fail to meet the legal requirements that would allow them to recruit new workers from the outside.

Japan Federation of National Public Service Employee’ Unions (Kokkororen) Vice Chair Kawamura Yoshinobu said that in order to protect people’s pensions, the Japan Pension Service should withdraw its dismissals and employ skilled workers.

Those who filed the petition of objection to their dismissals are Zenkosei members living in Akita, Tokyo, Aichi, Kyoto, Kagawa, and Ehime Prefectures. They seek to bring a lawsuit to the court.

Kojima Fumihiko from Ehime angrily said, “When I made a transfer request to the welfare ministry, although I have never received any reprimands, my request was refused and a person who had received reprimands was hired.”

- Akahata, January 19, 2010