Friday, March 4, 2016

Workers̈́' lives matters! Overwork suicide case in Saitama post office




On February 17th, a witness was summoned to the Saitama District Court to testify on the Saitama New Urban Center Post Office Suicide Case. The witness was the manager who drove a postal worker to commit suicide. The Post Office has 300 mail delivery workers and is one of the biggest in Japan. It was a model case for the privatization of the Post. In 2004, the Toyota system, often called  management by stress, was brought in and since then many workers have committed suicide from overwork.
In this case, a 51 year old postal worker jumped  from the 4th floor of his workplace and died on December 8th, 2010. He had been on sick leave for depression three times. His wife heard him saying, Its really hard work. The boss yells at me every day, Dont make mistakes! Dont do overtime! Im getting balder every day. In December 2013, she finally sued the Japan Post, who claimed his death was caused by personal reasons. 70 supporters gathered in front of the Court, holding a big banner saying Japan Post should realize that workers' lives matter. (M)

 217日「さいたま新都心郵便局過労自死事件」裁判は、死に追いこんだ管理職の証人調べが行われた。郵政民営化のモデル局「さいたま新都心郵便局」は、年賀状配達数日本一を誇るマンモス局。集配の職員も300人いる。しかしここでは合理化の極限といわれる「トヨタ方式」が2004年に導入され、過労自死が頻発していた。Kさん(享年51歳)は、この局に配転されてから「抑うつ状態」を発症し3度の病休を繰り返していたが、2010128日に職場の4階から飛び降り自殺をした。「とにかく きつい。上からは“ミスるな!事故るな!残業するな!”と言われ、毎日頭のはげる思いだ」と聞いていた妻は、個人的死として片付けようとする会社の態度に納得がいかず、3人の子どもと一緒に201312月に裁判提訴にこぎつけた。山場を迎えたこの日のさいたま地裁には、傍聴支援の仲間が約70人も集 まり「日本郵政・日本郵便は命の重さを知れ!」の大横断幕を掲げた。(M 


 

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