"最高裁「賞与不支給は不合理にあたらず」とまたもや不当判決！〜井関農機の非正規訴訟", 24 Jan 2021

[Japanese-to-English translation by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre]

On 19 January 2021, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in a lawsuit in which contract employees at Iseki & Co., Ltd. alleged that the gap between contract workers and regular employees was unlawful…While it found that the lack of bonuses for the contract employees was not an unreasonable disparity, it ordered the company to provide compensation for employee benefits.

The lawsuit was brought forth by five contract employees who worked at two subsidiaries under the major agricultural machinery company, Iseki. They sued the company, alleging that it was unlawful for their employer to deny bonuses and benefits, such as family and housing allowances, when they held the same jobs as regular employees. On 4 July 2019, the Matsuyama High Court ordered Iseki to provide compensation to the workers, stating that denying benefits, including family allowances, constituted an unreasonable disparity between regular and irregular employees. However, the court pointed out that it was reasonable for the company to pay bonuses only to regular employees as a means of securing a stable pool of capable staff. Ultimately, the high court did not determine that the disparity between regular and irregular employees was unlawful, citing how the company distributed “tokens of appreciation” in the form of 50,000 to 100,000 yen [$475 to $950] to contract employees.

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