4 Fukushima N-Plant Workers to Sue TEPCO over Danger Pay

Fukushima, Sept. 2 (Jiji Press)--Four workers engaged in the decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan plan to file a lawsuit demanding that parties including TEPCO pay a total of some 91.4 million yen in hazard and other allowances to them, a lawyer for the workers has said. The lawsuit will be filed on Wednesday with Fukushima District Court's branch in the city of Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the TEPCO plant, which was knocked out by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the lawyer, Tsuguo Hirota, said at a press conference on Monday. Two of the four men are still working for a subcontractor at the nuclear plant. It will be the first time for existing Fukushima No. 1 plant workers to sue TEPCO over working conditions. Since May 2011, the four, aged between 34 and 65, had been or are working to remove debris in areas around the plant's No. 3 reactor building and patrolling around tanks that hold highly radioactive water. The subcontractor gave a verbal explanation about danger allowances to them. But one of the four received only a small amount of hazard pay, while no such allowances were paid to the three others, according to the lawyer. TEPCO is obliged to supervise subcontractors to ensure that danger allowance are fully paid to their workers without fail, but it neglected to perform the duty, Hirota said, claiming that the company is thus responsible for the nonpayment of hazard allowances. Noting that workers at the nuclear plant have been exploited by TEPCO subcontractors, Hirota said that he wants to shed light on their tough work conditions through the trial. END