LAWSUIT FILED BY 4 FORMER TRAINEES
On the December 25, four Filipino women former trainees filed a lawsuit against the Makurazaki Fisheries Products Promotion Cooperative Association and others in the Kagoshima District Court, seeking 9.7 million yen in damages for alleged human rights violations at a supervisory organization that accepts foreign technical interns working at a dried bonito flakes factory in Makurazaki City, Kagoshima Prefecture. According to the complaint, the four women filed a lawsuit against the Makurazaki Seafood Promotion Cooperative Association and others in the Kagoshima District Court for approximately 9.7 million yen.
According to the complaint, the four trainees worked at a bonito flakes factory in Makurazaki City for six months to three and a half years each from 2018 to 2011 as technical interns. At the dormitory provided by the union, the trainees were not given bedrooms larger than 4.5 square meters per person, as required by the Technical Intern Training Law, and slept in bunk beds in a shared room for 16 people. They were subjected to excessive behavioral restrictions, such as prohibitions from wearing revealing clothing and being prohibited from going out of the city, and if they violated these restrictions they were sometimes made to write a letter of remorse or stand for long periods of time.
One of the plaintiffs, a woman in her 30s, alleges that when she developed hemorrhoids, a female employee of the union asked her to show her affected area and made her expose it in the office where other employees were present.
After the lawsuit was filed, the attorney for the plaintiff held an online press conference and said, “I am disappointed that my life in Makurazaki was terrible. I hope that justice will prevail in court,” read the plaintiff’s comments on his behalf.
The union stated that it has not received the complaint and therefore refrains from commenting on the case. The union received an improvement order from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on April 4 for deducting more rent and other expenses from the interns’ salaries than they actually owed.
MINAMI NIHON SHIMBUN
December 26, 2023
https://373news.com/_news/storyid/187589/
