Ex-Japan Airlines pilots, cabin crew file lawsuit

[January 19, 2011]  TOKYO (AP) -- Dozens of pilots and flight attendants laid off by Japan Airlines Corp. on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging their dismissal on the first anniversary of the flagship carrier's bankruptcy.

The 146 plaintiffs said their dismissal was unnecessary as the airline known as JAL made operating profit totaling over 140 billion yen ($1.7 billion) from April to November in 2010, according to a document submitted to the Tokyo District Court.

"The company's earnings are recovering, and there is no need to cut personnel costs by getting rid of jobs," the document said.

The lawsuit comes exactly a year after JAL filed for one of the biggest corporate bankruptcies in Japanese history. The carrier was saddled with more than $25 billion in debt, unprofitable routes and a bloated work force.

Since then, it has been undergoing a massive restructuring as part of a government-backed bailout. JAL's business plan, approved by its creditors and the Tokyo District Court, included eliminating money-losing routes, selling off subsidiaries and cutting its global work force by some 30 percent by the end of March.

To shrink staff numbers, the airline had offered early and voluntary retirement but fell short of its target. The plaintiffs -- 74 flight crew and 72 cabin attendants -- were among 165 employees fired as of Dec. 31 to make up the difference.

They argued JAL was sacrificing safety for profits by shedding so many of its most experienced employees. They also criticized the carrier for letting go older workers and those who had taken sick leave.

"They are only thinking of us as a cost," Hiroya Yamaguchi, who worked as a JAL pilot for 38 years, told a news conference Wednesday. "This new management at JAL is basing decisions on cost alone rather than the quality of our work."

JAL Chairman Kazuo Inamori apologized for the layoffs but defended the decision as a necessary step. The carrier has an obligation to follow through on the promises made in its business plan, including staff reductions, he said.

"I have heard criticism that we did not need to lay people off," Inamori said at a news conference. "I have thought about this many times. Our plan is based on the agreement that to turn around a bankrupt company like JAL, we need to undergo major restructuring."

The airline's bailout includes a 521.5 billion yen ($6.3 billion) debt waiver mainly from financial institutions and a 350 billion yen ($4.3 billion) investment in JAL by a government-backed body that is in charge of the bailout.

JAL marked its one-year anniversary since bankruptcy by unveiling new business principles and plans to bring back its famous red-crown crane logo, with its wings spread out into a circle. Introduced in the late 1950s, the crane represented Japanese quality, reliability and a pioneering spirit that helped JAL expand over the next decades, the company said.

It was then phased out gradually and disappeared in 2008.

"We decided to use this logo as a symbol of JAL's origins," said President Masaru Onishi. "Rather than a rebirth, we are working for a new birth."

[Associated Press; By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA]

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