Under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, financially nackered Japan Air Lines submitted its restructuring plan for 2010 to the Tokyo District Court last month. The plan pledged to cut some 16,000 employees within the whole corporate group. Reduction of about 10,000 jobs is already assured because a certain number of employees are slated to retire naturally and about 3,800 took optional early retirement. The remainder will transfer to subsidiaries outside the group. JAL has reportedly asked more employees to take early retirement, but not enough have come forward to accept the offer, which expires October 22. If they don't, it means JAL may not be able to reach its 2010 goal.
Consequently, the airline is thinking of threatening workers with seiri kaiko, or "forced resignations" if not enough people take voluntary early retirement. Benefits are understandably worse for those thrown out of the company than for those who leave of their own "free will," if you can call it that. The unions are, naturally, resisting this strong arm tactic.