"労働者の生活を守れ！アールエスエス社前でアピール行動", 8 Mar 2021

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

[...]

...The National Union of General Workers Tokyo Tobu is demanding that RSS Group protect workers’ right to live during Covid-19.

The company were able to pay full wages at an average rate to employees who were furloughed until January 2021 using the employment adjustment subsidy, which was introduced as part of the government’s special measures for Covid-19. However, in our collective bargaining talks on 8 February 2021, we learned that the company had intentionally decided to pay only 80% of average wages to workers…

…In fact, if RSS Group had paid full wages to furloughed workers, it would have been able to receive a government grant that would have recouped the cost because it is a small-medium enterprise…

…We believe that the company’s failure to pay out the 20% amounts to non-payment of the government subsidies…

In our negotiations, the company said that it had “suppressed” the wages because of “concerns that there would be problems over fairness between furloughed and non-furloughed workers”…If there were such concerns, RSS Group should have provided full compensation to furloughed workers while taking measures (such as establishing and distributing hazard pay) to employees who had continued to work during Covid-19…

On 15 February 2021, we asked the company to remedy the situation. However, it has not shown any signs of responding to our demands.

[…]