View on Fukuchiyama Line Accident by JRU

28 April 2005
 At a press conference of the foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan

Problem of Management Policy of JR West

Today I would like to talk about an accident that occurred on Apr.25, on the Fukuchiyama Line which was operated by the West Japan Railway Company (hereinafter referred to as JR West ). And I also would like to make it clear that it was caused as the result of two major factors, one was a management policy which put operations prior to safety and another was high pressure workplace control which forced fear and submission on workers.

It is almost certain that the direct cause of the accident was due to the fact the train entered the curve with 300 meters in radius at excessive speed beyond a limiting speed of 70 kph. Therefore I would like to start with my comment on the premise of this fact.

The reason why the driver probably increased speed at the corner of the curve was because he overran at a previous station, Itami Station, he tried to recover the lost time. Why did he try hard to recover accelerating the speed to make up for small time?

Here is a key to solve the question. Please look at a newspaper article covered in Oct. 2001, distributed to you. This article talks about the fact that a 44-year- old driver who worked for JR West caused one minute delay and as a result of that he was severely berated by JR West supervisors, resulting in his suicide. JR West submits employees to punishment called “Nikkin kyoiku”, an in-house re-education, on a pretext of small delay of trains and minor mistakes. The driver, who was a member of JRU, was subjected to re-education ,”Nikkin kyoiku” because of mere one minute delay and resulted in committing suicide.

During a re-educational process of “Nikkin kyoiku”, workers are surrounded by supervisors with rebukes and abuse, and they are subjected to menial work and meaningless reports day after day. This kind of punishment is continued until the person losing a mental balance is forced to admit his fault of his behavior and to promise that he will quit a job as a driver when he commits another mistake. If such painful days are continued, anyone can not keep his health condition. Although workers became drivers because they loved railway, many members left JR West because of unendurable pain and some of them committed suicide. The driver who overran the station with one-and-a-half minute delay probably thought of fear of punishment in his mind.

This driver who was only 23-year-old young man had probably passed a feeling that he never wanted to undergo “Nikkin kyoiku”, because he had been subjecting to it for 13 days already. I believe that because he desperately wanted to avoid from undergoing such a kind of punishment, he earnestly accelerated the speed to recover lost time. In other words, the fear made him disordered. This time, the same fear as that ever killed the 44-year-old driver claimed lives of many passengers and the young driver. The same undercurrent underlies the two accidents.

Apparently being aware that he would be in trouble again with the manager, the driver persuaded the conductor at the back of the train to report he had overrun the station by 8 meters. But the length was actually 40 meters.

Afterward it was questioned. It was reported that the Chairman of JR West, Nanya, announced it was “unspeakable”. But I think that the manager of JR West should take it seriously why employees made a decision to do so before he blamed the driver and the conductor on their lie. The answer reveals itself whether the conductor should be blamed for the lie due to sympathetically protect the young driver from harsh treatment by the company, or the managers should be blamed for workplace control which submits employees to fear.

Problem of Re-educational Program, “Nikkin kyoiku”

I would like to talk about “Nikkin kyoiku”. We have some documents here. In June,2004, the Human Right Protection Committee of Bar Association of Hyogo Prefecture issued a recommendation for the president of the Kobe branch of JR West. It said the committee recognized that “Nikkin kyoiku” which was imposed on the driver of Himeji Railway Division in Feb.2002, violated human rights and personal rights of the complainant, and the committee also recommended for the president of Kobe branch not to repeat such a kind of violation on human rights. The reason was written as follows.

“A content of day-shift work regarding this case is mainly to write company’s rules and to pull weeds on company’s gardens surrounding of the building. As for transcription of company’s rules, it subjects a grown man to physical and mental suffering, and it is questionable whether it has an educational meaning to order the transcription without voluntary will. As to pulling weeds, it is inappropriate for improving ability and quality of a driver after returning to work, and it is physical and mental suffering itself as well. Because it is believed to be almost unuseful to improve ability and quality of the complainant whose job is a driver. In other words, it is recognized that this kind of education forces physical and mental suffering on the complainant, and it has little reasonable and educational meaning and also has a purpose for being pilloried. Therefore it is concluded that it violates the complainant’s personal rights because it is undue in terms of both a purpose and a state.”

Since the occasion of the Higashi-Nakano Accident of JR East in Dec.1988, we, JRU, have been taking a policy, “Root cause analysis is prior to blaming workers,” and also we have been calling for companies to stop the punishment system such as “Nikkin kyoiku”. Even an employee, who tries seriously to work safely, makes a mistake and commits an accident, if incidental factors occur all together. If a reprimand or a pillory is strictly imposed on the employee, a similar accident would occur repeatedly without analyzing a real cause and taking preventative measures to eradicate a root cause. The problem is how to create a system to prevent making a mistake and not to connect it to an accident. This thinking way has already established in an aviation industry.

JR West company extraordinarily opposed against the view of JRU. In 1990, the International Railway Safety Conference was held sponsored by JR East’s labor and management, gathering world wide railway labors and managements. JR West company refused to attend this conference, saying that safety-related issues should be responsible for a management side. At the same time the president of JR Nishi Union, a company-based union, also refused it. This person conducted to separate our union, JRU, in the next spring. Although JRU members’ union in this region has become minority due to this split, we have been bravely struggling against brutal workplace control under undue attack by the company. Meanwhile, the Labor Relations Commission and law-courts ruled a series of sentences appreciating the JRU’s stance against undue attitude of JR West company.

Continuance of Extraordinary Accidents in JR West

JR West has serious and unusual accidents continuously. A rail collision between a train of Shigaraki-kogen Railway Co.(SKR ) and that of JR West occurred ,claimed 42 lives in May, 1991. JR West has been refusing to admit their responsibility since the accident occurred 12 years ago. However, as a court convicted JR West of their corporate responsibility in 2003, JR West finally apologized to the bereaved families. The direct cause of the accident was the SKR’s train started to run neglecting a signal, which had trouble due to effects of construction without noticing by JR West. The court sentence said that JR West had a serious responsibility for correcting SKR’s behavior though JR West had acknowledged it before the accident.

In 1999, a 200 kilogram concrete piece of tunnel wall fell on a Sinkansen train in the Fukuoka tunnel of Sanyo Sinkansen. JR West investigated tunnels and declared a safety statement. But after that a 226 kilogram concrete piece of wall again fell in the Kita-Kyushu tunnel. The reliability of this investigation was questioned and they were obliged to wholly inspect again.

In 2002, another accident occurred. A junior high school student had been stuck by railway train at the point between Amagasaki Station and Tukamoto Station in the Tokaido Line and rescue workers tried to take care of this person. In spite of this, a train rushed into the site at a speed of 100 kph, and two rescue workers was struck, one was died. A court pointed out imperfection in liaison and JR West’s strict policy of running on time.

So far this year, another case was uncovered. On Apr. 1, 2005, a JR Freight train struck a woman at a level crossing in the JR Hokuriku Line, and the JR Freight’s driver had been interviewed by a police investigation. During the time a JR West’s driver arbitrarily started to run the train without conformation whether persons who came to deal with the accident left the site.

This kind of operation-oriented policy was appeared in guidance at workplaces. JR West says in the “Medium-range Business Objective” called “Challenge 2008” that “ train-delay would betray customers’ confidence” and “early recovery is quite significance in an emergency” calling for employees to minimize downtime.

The president of Osaka district office of JR West said at the chief meeting held in last August, “We have many things to do. But we can’t do all of them. So we have to make a decision somewhere nevertheless we must not cause an accident. Preventing an accident is not an absolute thesis. For example we can accept a falling stone on our knee but on our head.” We conclude that the real cause of this accident is to control workplaces by subjecting employees to fear under operation-oriented management policy.

JR West has serious and unfortunate accidents, very unusual accidents in recent years. There was a very large accident killing 42 people in 1991 which involved in Shigaraki Railway Company. JR West had refused any responsibility and refused to apologize to the victim’s families for 12 years since that accident. It was 2003, when the court made a decision that JR West was responsible for the accident that JR West finally apologized to the family.

In 1999 an accident occurred in Sanyo Shinkansen Fukuoka tunnel. A piece of wall block fell on the Shinkansen trains. JR West immediately conducted inspection of all the tunnels and declared all were safe. But immediately after declared they are safe, another piece of wall broke away.In 2002 an unbelievable accident occurred. On the Tokaido Line a junior high school student had been brushed and struck by a train and rescue workers were taking care of the student. In spite of this a train traveling at a hundred kilometers per hour struck two rescue workers, and one was badly hurt and died.

As I mentioned earlier, the highest priority in JR West is always given to operations, and this kind of high priority to operations that resulted this kind of accidents. It is also resulted in a very unusual guidance style on site. In a mid-term business objective report called “Challenge 2008”, one of the major principles stressed is that “To provide services not correctly on time is to betray the customer’s expectation,” or “An early recovery when everything is in trouble is very important.” Thus it insists the employee’s “little downtime”.

In August last year at the conference of all of the on-site chiefs, a general manager of Osaka Regional Office said as follows, “We have to make decision somewhere. Simply to avoid accidents, we can’t use that for controlling everything that you can do.” He said, “Of course we should not have an accident. Actually an accident where a piece of tile comes down from above your head is not good, however, an accident where it comes down hitting your knees is acceptable.” I think this JR West’s workplace management to force workers to obey the orders with an atmosphere of fears, as I mentioned, under the stance that put safety below operation is a root cause of the accident.

To say “the accident was caused by the privatization” is too nearsighted.

My last comment is on the idea that this accident was caused by the privatization of the railway. As competition is prioritized under the neo-liberal policies everywhere in the world, the companies, whether privatized or governmental, are exposed to competition. They always come under a profit-making pressure at the cost of safety. I think it is a role of labor union to check the company’s policies guarding them from danger and to discuss the measure for it. And it is clear that all of the JR companies after privatization of the JNR have a stance like JR West. Among all the privatized JR companies, it is only JR West that has a pay-by-merit system. I think this system in a workplace of JR West brings workers an acute competition and this is used as leverage to control workers with a high-handed approach. However, in the storm of neo-liberal globalization other JR companies have a strong pressure to head for the same way as JR West. So JRU wants to continue to fight such pressures and in regard to JR West we‘ll ask for rebuilding its management policies with the systems under a real safety control.

Osamu Yomono
Vice President
JRU