A Technical Internship Trainee Programme (TITP) Supervisory Organisation (SO) sent a fax to a labour union asking them too expel four ‘trainees’ who had joined the union for assistance in dealing with abusive conditions at work. The four ‘trainees’, from the Philippines, state they had started working at a construction company in Japan in April 2015, and were subject to beatings and abusive language on a near daily basis. They joined a labour union in 2016, and demanded that the SO find them a new workplace. The SO subsequently sent a fax to the union, stating that they would not be able to find a new employer as long as the the trainees were member of a union, and asked the union to expel them. 

SOs are quangos licensed by the authorities to receive and place ‘trainees’ under the programme. Like any other workers, 'trainees' have the right to join labour unions.