Opinion Employed but out of work By Tony Laszlo	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
勤め人なのに失業中？ 活発に組合活動を行なっていたAP通信東京支局の写真部員が突然解雇された。裁判所は解雇を無効とし、写真部員は復職したが、 仕事を任せてもらえないままの状態が続いている。

The line between employed and unemployed has always been a bit blurry but the case of Atsushi Tsukada takes the cake.

On April 21, a court ruled that the Tokyo bureau of the Associated Press (AP), the world's largest wire service, wrongfully dismissed the 43-year-old man two years ago. The Judge restored Tsukada's employee status and ordered the company to pay the man's salary each month until he reaches retirement age. However, the decision fell short of ordering the company to actually reinstate him, in the physical sense.

Tsukada, a 19-year veteran photo editor and leader of the local workers' union at the Tokyo bureau, was suddenly issued his pink slip Oct. 25, 2002. At that time, the company laid off a total of four workers including Tsukada - three of them union members - in the middle of heated collective contract bargaining. While the other three settled out of court for severance packages, Tsukada decided to file a lawsuit last February. In his ruling last April, Tokyo District Court Judge Kenichiro Masunaga backed up Tsukada's claim that the company had no reasonable grounds to dismiss him.

Japanese jurisprudence dictates that a company may lay off workers only as a last resort, when there is a clear financial reason to do so. Furthermore, the selection of the person to be dismissed must be fair and logical. In the AP case, the judge noted that increases in wages for management, continued use of chauffeurs, the hiring of new workers and a recent move to posh new offices made it difficult to believe that the company was having significant cash-flow problems. And when AP claimed that Tsukada's lack of skills and poor attitude made him an inferior worker, the judge suggested that the company was, in fact, simply reacting to his union activities.

Weeks have passed since the ruling. Tsukada is now once again on the company payroll. But whether he will ever get back to his desk is an open question.

Despite petitions from Tsukada and his supporters, so far AP has refused to allow the photo editor to return to the workplace. Judging from other similar cases, it is conceivable that he will be in this sort of limbo for a while, perhaps right through to retirement.

Will the company really opt to shell out ¥millions of in salary each year with no return, rather than put Tsukada back in the lineup?

From a purely economic viewpoint, it certainly makes more sense for AP to reinstate him. That would be the morally right thing to do, as well. To take Tsukada back is to allow him to be productive, to further his career, to feel needed. Not to take him back is to lock him into an occupational rut, leaving him to stagnate professionally, possibly for the rest of his life. This is not good for him, not good for the company, not good for anybody.

How the judge failed to foresee that Tsukada might fall through the cracks like this is beyond me. The court says he is legally an employee. Shouldn't it have made sure that he be treated as one, as well?

Shukan ST: June 25, 2004

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