Historic Settlement on Women's Labor Lawsuit

The Osaka District Court rejected the lawsuit in 2000. However, on Christmas of 2003, both the plaintiffs and the defendants dramatically reached an out-of-court settlement on the condition of a settlement package of 5 million yen for each plaintiff, promoting the plaintiffs to ranks equivalent to division chief and section head and promising a positive effort to be made by the government to settle the problems on sex discrimination in Japan. Although I was greatly cheered up by the good news, I felt that we have long way to run for pursuing gender equality in our country when finding that this news was reported as a small one among the news of that night.

In the early 2004, a good news was announced that the Sumitomo Electric Industries Suite, a widely watched women's labor suite over the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, had reached a out-of-court settlement with an overall victory of the plaintiffs. And it considered as a landmark victory as far as the content of the settlement is concerned.

The Way to a Lawsuit
In 1988, two female employees of Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. sued the firm, alleging it discriminated against women in terms of pay and promotion, as well as the government for its turning down the mediation before trial. The plaintiffs maintained that they had been deprived of opportunities for capacity building and promotion, and demanded a compensation of some 160 million yen, which included the salary difference, about 200,000 yen per month, between them and male employees who had worked at the firm for the same length of time.
Debate had been focused on the question that if the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which was enacted in 1985 for prohibiting sex discrimination in pay, promotion and treatment, is applicable to the labors employed before 1985. At the same time, the dual employment system adopted by some companies from 1986 as a response to the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was also criticized to commit an indirect discrimination.

First Trial
In the original ruling, the Osaka District Court rejected the claim of the plaintiffs and said that although the discrimination based on gender violated the spirit of the Constitution, the system was not illegal under the circumstances at the time. To the critic on the dual employment system, it is said that the court would not require the company to correct the system since people were employed in different systems, and at the same time support the decision of the government to turn down the mediation. This ruling made a big impact on the whole country and greatly disappointed the people working on the women's labor issue. One of the plaintiffs, Eiko Shirafuji pointed out the unjustness of the ruling by saying that "Does it mean that those who were recruited before the Equal Opportunity of Employment should be deprived of the chance to be treated equally in the company for whole life?" The plaintiffs also argued, "the ruling goes against the times". In order to gain the support from international community, the plaintiffs carried out vigorous activities including addressing appeal to the SEDAW on the unfair ruling of Japan with the support from the Working Women Network.

Second Trial
The out-of-court settlement of the suite, which was reached under the full support of the high court to the plaintiffs and the agreement of the company, is considered as a landmark for women's labor issue in Japan. According to the settlement, Sumitomo Electric agreed to pay the two plaintiffs a combined 10 million yen and promote them to division chief and section head respectively. At the same time, it is confirmed that positive action on elimination of discrimination are to be carried out by the government, especially on the promotion issue. Presiding Judge Toshio Igaki of the high court criticized the lower court's decision, saying, "Allowing vestiges of discrimination to remain unchanged because of the social consciousness of an earlier age ignores the way society has evolved" and declared that the labors recruited before 1985 should also be treated equally. He added by saying, "not only the direct discrimination, but also the indirect one should be taken in consideration". That means it is possible for the dual employment system to be regarded as indirect discrimination which should would be a historical progress in the area.

Comments
I still remember that after learning the news of settlement from the morning newspaper on January 4, 2004, I was so exited that cut class and telephoned almost ten people to share the great news with them. It is a really long waited good news on sex discrimination. However the news failed to be taken seriously by the mass media in the night news program, which showed low public interest in this issue. It is true that we still have long way to run for reach a breakthrough in discrimination based on gender.