The Tokyo District Court on Thursday nullified a 1987 Central Labor Relations Commission order for the Japan Railway group companies to employ or compensate unionists who were not rehired when the Japanese National Railways was privatized.
The court ruled on two separate lawsuits, filed in 1994 and 1995 by a total of six privatized railways -- East Japan Railway Co., West Japan Railway Co., Hokkaido Railway Co., Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai), Kyushu Railway Co. and Japan Freight Railway Co.
The rulings were handed down the same day in two separate courtrooms: one for the lawsuit filed by the Kyushu and Hokkaido carriers, and the other for the Honshu railways. In the ruling for the Honshu group, presiding Judge Saburo Takase said JR companies were responsible for selecting personnel to start up their new entities but were not obligated to compensate JNR workers who were not rehired.