05/23/2013. lemonde.fr. peacephilosophy. japanfocus. The magazine "Sekai,world"
Thursday, May 23, 2013
According to less than hourly wage 837 yen, the labor circumstances of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant who continues becoming exposure dose 100mSv - evil of several days in total and the Japanese Government and the investigation by Tokyo Electric / Le Monde paper (May 21) Tokyo Electric to watch calmly, 5% receive only an hourly wage 837 yen within salary to be less than minimum wages of Tokyo among approximately 3,000 nuclear power generation workers equal to the accident processing by Fukushima nuclear power generation. Today when two years or more pass, the on-site work continues increasing, but the salary is cut more than 20% from before accident outbreak by Fukushima nuclear plant accident.
On the other hand, nuclear power generation workers of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant are exposed to a high radiation dose for 50mSv in total in three months. It is a person in charge collecting debris to be the most terrible. There is even the person that an exposure dose of 100mSv is developed in a few days. This is equivalent to a share for five years of the quantity of annual radiation exposure limit set of a French nuclear power generation worker.
In the scenery where deterioration of the labor circumstances follows, there is lack of policy of Tokyo Electric where the service badness of the worker watches becoming it calmly by the reason of a cost cut and a subcontract system of the accident processing, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare overlooking on-site Labor Standards Law violation and the Japanese Government.
The Kiyoshi Hasegawa (Hasegawa corner) of McGill University (McGill University) in Canada former instructor announced the analysis to point out inferior labor circumstances of the Fukushima nuclear power generation for the cause in the findings to 3,186 nuclear power generation workers on April 22 to Asia Pacific journal (Asia-Pacific Journal, note). The Hajime Hasegawa instructor puts written acceptance for the labor circumstances correction of the worker required together to Prime Minister Abe, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Norihisa Tamura, lower Kazuhiko Kawabe Tokyo Electric's chairperson, Naoki Hirose Tokyo Electric's president and gathers announcement, assenters to written acceptance required.
●An original article: "A sweeper" of Fukushima where is made to be exposed to radiation and is taken a kickback with a salary passes; / Le Monde (May 21) («A Fukushima, des«nettoyeurs » irradiés et sous-payés», Le Monde, 2013.05.22) http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/21/a-fukushima-des-nettoyeurs-irradies-et-sous-payes_3414880_3244.html
●Written acceptance to the Japanese Government hanging for the labor circumstances correction of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant required
http://peacephilosophy.blogspot.jp/2013/04/an-appeal-for-improving-labour.html
(note) Contribution sentence to Asia-Pacific Journal by the Hajime Hasegawa instructor
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Sumi-Hasegawa/3930
I introduce a letter of acceptance requiring the improved treatment of the Japanese nuclear power generation worker by Kiyoshi Hasegawa of Canada Montreal required. I keenly realize a crime and responsibility of we each one permitting nuclear power generation some other time when I think of people engaged in the control work of a dangerous nuclear reactor. And I refresh sense that the people who must ask for work while I am exposed to radiation must no longer permit majority of dangerous industry becoming necessary in both Japan and the world that is re-operation,new establishment and the export of the nuclear power generation, we should not do.
05/23/2013. lemonde.fr. peacephilosophy. japanfocus. 雑誌『世界』
2013年5月23日 (木)
時給837円未満、数日間の被曝量計100ミリシーベルト―悪化し続ける福島原発の労働環境と静観する日本政府と東電／ルモンド紙（5月21日）
東京電力による調査によると、福島原発で事故処理にあたる原発作業員約3千人のうち5％が東京都の最低賃金を下回る時給837円未満の給与しか受け取っていない。福島原発事故から2年以上が経つ今日、現場での作業は増え続けているが、給与は事故発生前より20%以上カットされている。
他方で福島原発の原発作業員たちは3ヶ月で計50ミリシーベルトにも及ぶ高い放射線量にさらされている。最もひどいのは瓦礫を集める係だ。数日で100
ミリシーベルトもの被曝量に至る者すらいる。これはフランスの原発作業員に定められている年間被曝限度量の5年分に相当する。
労働環境の劣化が続く背景には、事故処理のコスト削減と下請け制度を理由に作業員の待遇劣悪化を静観する東京電力、現場の労働基準法違反を看過する厚生労働省、そして日本政府の無策がある。
カナダにあるマギル大学（McGill University）の長谷川 澄（はせがわ すみ）元専任講師は4月22日、3,186人の原発作業員への調査結果を元に福島原発の劣悪な労働環境を指摘する分析をアジア太平洋ジャーナル（Asia-Pacific Journal、注）に発表した。長谷川元専任講師は安倍首相、田村憲久厚生労働大臣、下河辺和彦東電会長、広瀬直己東電社長に作業員の労働環境是正を求める要請書を合わせて発表、要請書への賛同者を募っている。
●元の記事：被曝させられ給与をピンハネされる福島の「掃除夫」たち／ルモンド紙（5月21日）
(« A Fukushima, des « nettoyeurs » irradiés et sous-payés », Le Monde, 2013.05.22)
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/21/a-fukushima-des-nettoyeurs-irradies-et-sous-payes_3414880_3244.html
●福島原発の労働環境是正にかかる日本政府への要請書
http://peacephilosophy.blogspot.jp/2013/04/an-appeal-for-improving-labour.html
（注）長谷川元専任講師によるAsia-Pacific Journalへの寄稿文
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Sumi-Hasegawa/3930
カナダ・モントリオールの長谷川澄さんによる日本の原発作業員の待遇改善を要求する要請文を紹介します。危険な原子炉の収拾作業に携わる人々のことを思うと、あらためて原発を許してきてしまっている私たち一人一人の罪と責任を痛感します。そして、被曝しながらの仕事をお願いしなければいけない人々が大多数必要になるような危険な産業をこれ以上日本でも世界でも許してはいけません、つまり原発の再稼働や新設、輸出はあり得ない、との念を新たにしています。
:
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Sumi-Hasegawa/3930
・Destination of the letter of acceptance required
ABE Shinzo, Prime Minister of Japan
TAMURANorihisa,Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan
SHIMOKOBE Kazuhiko,Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. (TEPCO)
HIROSE Naomi,President,Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd.(TEPCO)
'An Appeal to Improve Labor Conditions for Workers at the
Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant'
Labor conditions for the workers employed to clean up after the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant operated by TEPCO have worsened considerably since the time of the accident; compensation has decreased, the housing situation has worsened, and more.This has been reported in at least three forums: first, on the radio programHôdô suru rajio Radio Broadcast News] broadcast on March 15, 2013, specifically in a segment called “Radio Broadcast News Brings You the True Story of the Two Years since the Nuclear Accident” (hereafter referred to as:Radio Broadcast News); second, a roundtable discussion published in the April 2013 issue of the journalSekaithat featured three workers at the nuclear plant, entitled “What is happening now at 1-F [an abbreviation for “Fukushima Dai-ichi”]?” (hereafter:Roundtable); and third, a report filed in the same issue ofSekaiby Fuse Yûjin titled “1-F Has Not Yet Been Restored” (hereafter:Report).These sources have publicized the issue in some detail, so in what follows, I would like to draw from these sources what I consider to be the main points of concern and my opinions on how to address them.
What all three sources indicate as the common cause for the worsening of conditions for workers at 1-F is TEPCO’s letting outside corporations bid to provide services in order to cut costs. A company attempting to become a TEPCO contractor will submit a bid below the current rate, and this regularly results in eight or even nine layers of subcontractors, so it becomes clear why the conditions for the workers employed at the bottom of these chains of subcontracted labor get progressively worse.For example, the workers who had been performing a job at the time of the accident have seen their numbers cut in half while still expected to do the same job as before (Radio Broadcast News); moreover, workers who had been housed in hotels in Iwaki city and bused in and out of the disaster site were moved to prefab units or abandoned houses in a place nearer the disaster site called Hironomachi, and were expected to provide their own meals and their own hot water for bathing instead of having it provided for them, and even transportation to and from the disaster site became their responsibility (Radio Broadcast News).Hironomachi is located in an area that was designated an Emergency Evacuation Preparedness Zone until just the beginning of this year, and almost none of its former residents have returned; the radiation levels there are reportedly much higher than in Iwaki.
So just imagine for a moment: during the day you perform intense labor in a highly radioactive zone, and when you return to your cold house, no one is there to greet you, in fact there is almost no one anywhere around you at all; would you have the will to go out and buy ingredients to make yourself a proper meal?Would there be any day when trying to get as much sleep as possible wouldn’t take priority over preparing a balanced meal or taking a bath? To cut costs in these areas displays in extreme form a complete disregard for the health and wellbeing of workers.
In terms of wages as well, even workers with seniority dating from before the accident are finding themselves being paid about two thousand yen less per day, along with the elimination of extra compensation for hazardous work conditions; there is testimony as well that at the lowest end of the spectrum, it is not uncommon for the daily wage to dip to just eight thousand yen (Report).Even more shocking, according to Radio Broadcast News, in response to a recent survey taken by TEPCO of its subcontracted workers, 5% reported earning less than 837 yen per hour (Tokyo minimum wage)!This survey is one supposedly administered regularly by TEPCO to assess the situation of its subcontracted labor, but in fact, TEPCO does not administer it directly.Rather, the surveys are entrusted to the main contractor to distribute to its subcontractors, and so on.Some workers report that during the surveys they are pointedly reminded by their bosses not to“write anything unusual” (Report), while others report having to fill out the surveys in front of their bosses or even being told what to write as they fill them out (Radio Broadcast News).So it is hard to believe that the results of this survey reflect the true working conditions of these employees, yet even it shows that 9% of them work at least five layers of subcontractors below the main contractor; 15% are “false” contract workers, that is, the company from which they receive wages and the company for which they are said to be working are in fact different; and another 15% report not being told how much radiation they are exposed to during a day(Radio Broadcast News).
It is a clear violation of the Labor Standards Act to employ this sort of “false” contract labor or to expose workers to unknown levels of radiation.If this survey was done properly, imagine what sort of conditions might be exposed!WhenSekaiasked TEPCO about the marked decrease in worker compensation and elimination of hazard pay, TEPCO’s public relations department explained, “The costs entailed in the job, including consideration of working conditions, are stipulated in the contracts we make, but these employees are contracted to subcontractors, and thus we have no knowledge of how they are compensated; after all, we cannot pretend to speak to the workings of companies with whom we have no contract” (Report).Further, when asked about the various other problems reported on the survey, TEPCO said, “We request of our contractors, as the contracting company, that their subcontractors provide workers with adequate wages, support for their basic needs, and everything else guaranteed by the Constitution” (Report).
But this survey is not something that occurred for the first time just now.It has been administered regularly for some time.In the two years following the accident, these problems have not only been left unaddressed, they’ve gotten worse.These workers are exposing themselves to radiation cleaning up a disaster TEPCO created.Is TEPCO not obliged to protect these workers’ health and provide them with proper working conditions?And what about the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare?What are they doing about the clear violations of the Labor Standards Act that have emerged from this survey?
Another important issue is the increased replacement of experienced workers familiar with nuclear technology by workers with no nuclear experience when the experienced workers reach their maximum allowable level of radiation exposure.As one worker put it during the roundtable, “In a high radiation zone, you are exposed to radiation whether you are undergoing training or not; in other words, there is no time for training.Rather than simply getting rid of experienced workers when they reach their maximum exposure levels, we should guarantee their employment during the five years it takes to reset their levels by using them to educate new workers and man conventional thermal power plants in order to preserve these human resources.That way, these workers could support operations until it was time they could return to the nuclear site.”I find it hard to contemplate returning workera who had reached their maximum radiation level back into a high radiation zone even after five years, but nevertheless, it would be good for such workers to be provided with proper medical examinations and the like during that time.In any case, the cleanup of Fukushima Dai-ichi is a job that will end in the far future, any number of decades down the line.Precisely because workers are irradiating themselves in order to complete this job for us, we must closely safeguard their wellbeing.Whether this clean-up process continues slowly and steadily or another major accident occurs is an affair that concerns not just Japan but every living being on the planet.So it is the duty of each and every one of us to guarantee a stable work environment for those who perform this job for us, so that they can work proudly, knowing that they are doing their part to stop our environment from becoming even more polluted than it already is.Let us all listen in good faith to the words of the workers, and be vigilant in our calls to make TEPCO and the Japanese government take proper responsibility toward them, to guarantee that each and every one of them will see their proper wages restored and their work environments improved; let us never let up in these demands until they are met.
Sumi Hasegawa
Faculty Lecturer, McGill University (Retired)
English translation: Brian Bergstrom
If you or your group would like to sign this letter, please send your name (as well as any relevant institutional or group affiliation) and location to Sumi Hasegawa atsumi.hasegawa@bell.net
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要請文の送り先；
内閣総理大臣 安部晋三殿
厚生労働大臣 田村憲久殿
東京電力取締役会長 下河辺和彦殿
東京電力取締役社長 広瀬直己殿
福島第一の原発作業員の待遇改善を要求しよう
東電福島第一の事故収束作業に従事する作業員の待遇が事故当初より賃金も下がり、宿舎などの条件も悪くなっている。 これについては『報道するラジオ』3月15日放送分の“報道するラジオが伝える原発事故２年の真実”(以下“報ラジと略)と雑誌『世界』４月号の原発作業員3人による座談会“いまイチエフはどうなっているか”（“世界座談”と略）、及び布施裕仁氏によるルポ“イチエフいまだ収束せず”（“世界ルポと略）の中で詳しく報道されているが、以下にその要点をまとめながら、問題点や意見も加えていきたい。
三つの報道が共通して指摘しているこの待遇改悪の原因は東電がコスト削減を理由に作業の発注を入札制にしたためだ。 仕事を取りたい元請会社が同じ仕事を今までより安く落札し、その皺寄せが8次受け、9次受けも珍しくないという下請け業者の末端の作業員の待遇改悪となって現れているのだ。 例えば、事故当時と同じ仕事をしているのに作業員の員数が半分に減らされたり（報ラジ）、以前はいわき市の旅館を借り上げて、作業員を住まわせ、そこから現場までバスで送迎していたのを止め、原発に近い広野町という所にプレハブを建てたり、空家になっている民家を借りて住まわせ、旅館の時には付いていた食事も自腹で自炊、お風呂の支度なども自分たちでしなければならず、送迎も無しになっていると言う（報ラジ）。 広野町は緊急時避難準備区域であったのが今年になって解除されたばかりで、元々の住民はまだ殆ど帰って来ていない所で、いわき市に比べて線量もずっと高いという。 考えても貰いたい。 一日、高線量の所で激しい労働をして、帰って来ても、温かいねぎらいの言葉もなく、火の気も無い家に入り、元々の住民が殆ど戻っていないような所で、まともな食材を買ったり、料理したりすることができるのだろうか？ 風呂や食事の支度をするより寝た方が良いなどという日はないのだろうか？ こんなところでコストの削減をするのは、作業員の健康管理などに何の心使いも無いことを端的に示している。 日当についても、事故前から福島第一で仕事して来たベテラン作業員さえ事故当初に比べ2千円下がって、危険手当も付いていないと言う証言や、末端の作業員の中には日当8千円という人も珍しくないという証言もある（『世界』ルポ）。 それどころか、報ラジでは東電が下請け作業員に対して行った最近のアンケートから、時給837円（東京都の最低賃金）を下回る人が5％いるという驚くべき 結果を挙げている。 このアンケートは東電が下請け作業員の就労実態を把握するために定期的に行っているそうだが、東電が直接行っているのではない。 元請を通し下請け業者毎にまとめて配られ、その時、元請から『変なこと書かないでね』と釘をさされたり（『世界』ルポ）、下請け業者に因っては、その社長の前で作業員が記入したり、記入する答えを指定されることもある（報ラジ）という。 正確な就労実態が反映されているとは到底思えないが、そのアンケートからさえ、自分が仕事している所が元請から数えて５次請負以上という人が9％、自分に日当を支給している会社と現場で作業の指示をしている会社が違う偽装請負が15％、その日の自分の放射線の線量が分からないという人が15％もいたと言う（報ラジ）。 偽装請負と線量を知らされていないのは明らかに労基法違反である。 このアンケートが正しい方法で獲られていれば一体どんな実態が現れていたのだろうか。 日当が下がっていることや危険手当が付いていない人が多いことに対して、雑誌『世界』が東電に問い合わせたところ、東電本社広報部は“作業環境や条件を考慮した工事費で契約しているが、あくまで元請けと契約しているので、下請けがどのように作業員に支払っているかは把握していないし、契約関係にない会社に口出しすることは出来ない”と説明した（世界ルポ）。 そして、アンケートに出てきた色々な問題については“発注者の立場から元請に対して下請け会社が作業員に適正な賃金、手当てを支給し、法律上必要とされる保護を行うよう要請する”と回答している（世界ルポ）。 しかし、このアンケートは初めて取られたものではない。今までも定期的に取られてきたのだ。事故後２年たった今も問題は改善されていないどころか悪くなっている。 作業員は東電の引き起こした事故を処理するためにここで被曝しながら作業しているのです。 その作業員の健康を守り、適正な条件で働いてもらうようにするのは東電の義務ではないのか。 また、明らかな労基法違反があることがアンケートに出ているのに厚生労働省は何をしているのか。
事故当初からの現場の仕事の流れを知悉している熟練作業員が線量限界に達して、現場を去り、代わりに原発での仕事経験がない人が増えているという問題も深刻だ。 “高線量の現場では新人に仕事を教えている間にも被曝するから、教えている時間がない。 線量限界に達した熟練者を放置しないで、被曝線量のカウントがリセットされる５年後まで、新人の教育や火力発電所などで仕事を保証し、人材を確保してほしい。 そうすれば5年後にまた福島第一の現場に戻る時まで技術を維持できる”（世界座談）という現場の作業員ならではの提言もある。 線量限界に達した人をまた５年後に現場に戻すには忍びない気もするが、その5年の間にしっかりと健康診断などをしてもらうということは出来ると思う。 とにかく、福島第一の事故は収束などには程遠く、これから何十年も続く作業だ。 被曝しながら作業してくれる人達がいるからこそ、辛うじて現状を維持しているのだ。 ここがこれから大きな事故もなく、少しずつでも収束に向かって進めるかどうかは日本だけでなく、この地球に住むもの全てに関わる問題だと思う。 海も空も続いているのだから。 したがって、そこで働く作業員に心身ともに安定した環境を整え、地球環境のこれ以上の悪化を自分たちが食い止めているという誇りを持って仕事できるよう支えるのは私たち一人一人が負うべき義務だと思う。 作業員の発信に真摯に耳を傾け、東京電力と日本政府が責任を持って、作業員一人一人の賃金と生活環境を改善するまで監視し、要求を送り続けましょう。
長谷川澄 退職マギル大学専任講師 、モントリオール、カナダ
このアピールの賛同人になっていただける方は以下のメールアドレスにご連絡ください。 個人としてお名前を掲載する時は住所（国名も）と名前を、所属団体名と名前を掲載する場合は団体の所在国、市まで（例えば、“カナダ、モントリオール、マギル大学”のように）をお送りください。このアピールは日本語と英語と仏語 で出しますので、どの言語の下にお名前を掲載希望かもお書きください。
Sumi.hasegawa@bell.net
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