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- Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor
Storage
tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost
80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by
workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say
labor regulators and some of those involved in the work.
5
December, 2013
"Even
if we didn't agree with how things were being done, we had to keep
quiet and work fast," said Yoshitatsu Uechi, 48, a mechanic and
former bus driver, who was one of a crew of 17 workers recruited in
Okinawa and sent to Fukushima in June 2012 - among the thousands of
workers from across Japan who have put together the emergency water
tanks and stabilized the plant after three reactor meltdowns that
were triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The
Okinawa crew was recruited by Token Kogyo, an unregistered broker,
and passed on to work at the Fukushima plant under the direction of
Tec, a larger contractor which reported to construction firm Taisei
Corp, records show. That practice of having workers hired by a broker
but managed by another contractor is banned under Japanese law to
protect workers from having their wages skimmed and to clarify who is
responsible for their safety.
In
September, Okinawa labor regulators sanctioned Token Kogyo after
investigating a complaint by Uechi and concluding the broker
improperly sent workers to Fukushima, said an official with knowledge
of the order, which was not made public. The official said Token
Kogyo did not have the required license to dispatch workers. Japan's
labor laws also prohibit third-party brokers from sending workers to
construction jobs like the tank assembly where the Okinawa crew was
employed. The sanction is a written order to improve business
practice.
At
Fukushima, the workers from Okinawa were told by a Tec supervisor to
lie to the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, and say they
were employed by Tec, according to Uechi, three other workers,
employment documents and a recording of a workplace briefing reviewed
by Reuters.
"People
didn't have contracts, so when they weren't needed any more, they
were cut immediately," said Uechi. Other members of the
Okinawa-hired crew confirmed details of his account, but asked not to
be named.
Tokyo
Electric, or Tepco, declined to comment on the specifics of the
Okinawa crew, citing a need to protect the confidentiality of worker
complaints brought to its attention and an inability to confirm
relevant facts. Taisei declined to comment in detail, saying it
"appropriately instructs its sub-contractors and tightly
monitors its network of contractors."
Token
Kogyo declined to comment on Uechi's case but confirmed it had sent
some workers to Fukushima from Okinawa. Tec did not respond to
repeated requests for comment.
QUALITY
CONCERNS
Uechi
complained to Tepco about work conditions at Fukushima in a series of
phone calls beginning in August 2012, he said. He described his
concerns about the quality of work at the plant in interviews with
Japan's Chunichi newspaper and the Associated Press this year. The
illegal employment practices and the sanction against Token Kogyo
have not been previously reported.
Tepco
has promised to improve working conditions in an unprecedented
nuclear decommissioning project expected to take more than 30 years.
[ID:nL4N0J31FR] The company said last month it would more carefully
monitor sub-contractors and double the pay for thousands of workers
after a Reuters report found widespread abuses, including falsified
employment records, skimmed wages and a lack of worker contracts.
[ID:nL4N0HS0UJ]
"Ensuring
all workers at Fukushima are being employed appropriately is a very
high priority that has a direct relation to our ability to bring a
close to the accident," Tokyo Electric said in a statement. "We
are working with all our contractors and others to ensure that laws
and regulations are observed."
Yosuke
Minaguchi, a lawyer who has represented Fukushima workers, said
problems in enforcing labor standards in the nuclear clean-up could
threaten its completion.
"I
have seen many younger workers drop out of the clean-up after they
had their wages skimmed or after facing dangers that were not
explained to them," he said. "Without stronger labor
protection, there's no way the decommissioning project will succeed."
RADIOACTIVE
WATER
Since
the 2011 disaster, huge volumes of radioactive water have built up at
the Fukushima site, with some leaking into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
As an interim measure, Tepco rushed an order for steel tanks that
could be put together quickly after being shipped in parts and
assembled on site.
These
bolted-style storage tanks, each as tall as a 3-storey building, were
intended to last only until 2016, giving Tepco time to have a
purification system in place so contaminated water could be cleansed
and safely discharged.
In
August, one of the tanks was discovered to have leaked about 300 tons
of water, raising global alarm over Japan's handling of the crisis
and prompting the government to order that the makeshift, bolted
tanks like those assembled by the Okinawa crew be replaced by
sturdier, welded tanks.
Weeks
later, radiation at the ground near one of the tanks spiked to a
level so high that it would have caused radiation sickness within an
hour if a worker had been directly exposed. That spike, after an
apparent leak of radioactive water, occurred in the same area where
Uechi and the Okinawa crew had been working - an open space known as
H3 on an elevated plain above Fukushima's four wrecked reactors.
"Yes,
we did a shoddy job," said one of Uechi's co-workers, who didn't
want to be named as it could jeopardize his job prospects. "The
quality of what we did was low, but what else would you expect? We
had to race to finish up the tanks." The worker quit after only
a month at Fukushima due to the fear of radiation. He now works on a
construction site in Okinawa.
Uechi
says he spent much of his six months at Fukushima complaining about
work standards and working conditions and being ignored. He said
workers building the storage tanks last year never felt able to call
attention to defects.
In
one example, Uechi said workers were rushed to apply caulking to seal
the tanks even when it was raining and snowing. "It didn't make
any sense, because the caulking wouldn't get to the metal. It would
float out," Uechi said. Tepco said it could not confirm details
reported by Uechi, but said workers should not have been working on
sealing the tanks in the rain because it could have made the sealant
in the tanks more prone to fail.
RECRUITMENT
Token
Kogyo, the broker that recruited Uechi and other workers, operates in
the suburbs of Naha, the largest city on Okinawa island, a 2-1/2 hour
flight southwest of Tokyo. The firm is involved in building work on
the island and targets seasonal workers willing to travel to
construction jobs in Japan's larger cities, job ads issued by the
company and posters on the building housing the firm show.
As
of September, government data showed there were fewer than six job
openings for every 10 seeking work in Okinawa. By contrast, there
were as many as 12 openings for every 10 workers in Fukushima
prefecture, where mass evacuations have hobbled the reconstruction
effort.
Uechi,
who has three school-age children, said he was lured by the promise
of pay that would be more than twice the minimum wage in Okinawa. He
and the other workers were only told they were going to the Fukushima
nuclear plant at the job interview.
Workers
were housed three or four to a small room, and work conditions were
tough. The day would start with breakfast at 5 a.m. at a highway
rest-stop now housing workers. Protective suits were hot in summer,
and the work was cold in winter. Five of the 17 of the Okinawa hires
quit in the first month. Only three, including Uechi, lasted until
December, he said.
The
Okinawa crew were all paid without any documentation before Uechi
complained to Tepco, which ordered Taisei to investigate. As a
result, Tec supervisors brought the Okinawa crew into a room in
August 2012 and asked them to fill out a confidential survey
requested by Tepco on work conditions.
On
a recording of that meeting which Uechi said he made, a person he
identified as a Tec supervisor is heard telling workers they should
report that they were receiving hazard pay and were employed by Tec.
That was untrue as they had been hired by Token Kogyo and paid for
their early work at Fukushima by the broker, Uechi said and his bank
records show.
"When
it comes to our sub-contractors, we register them all as Tec,"
the supervisor is heard to say. "If you want to say that's a
forgery, then, yes, it's a forgery."
Uechi
declined to fill in the form as instructed, and continued to complain
to Tepco. Later that month, Tec gave Uechi a contract until
end-December and increased his pay to 16,000 yen ($160) a day from
13,000 yen. It was not clear if other workers were given contracts,
though Uechi said others were given a similar pay rise.
Uechi
said he was sent home with almost three weeks left on his contract.
He was told that was because Taisei had lost a bid for a new job at
the plant. Taisei declined to comment on that matter. Tepco said it
was "not in a position to know the details of the contract
terms."
ONE
MILLION YEN
In
January of this year, when Uechi pressed his complaints with
regulators and began speaking to reporters about his experience, Tec
Chairman Yasushi Ogawa visited Okinawa and handed Uechi 1 million yen
($9,800) in cash. Ogawa said this was for "unpaid wages and
compensation," Uechi said. He said Ogawa asked him not to
complain to Taisei again at that meeting.
Uechi
accepted the payment but pressed Tec to provide a breakdown of the
money for tax purposes. Reuters reviewed a recording of the meeting
Uechi said he had made and a document he said Ogawa asked him to sign
when handing over the money.
Tec
referred all questions to Ogawa. Reached by phone, Ogawa said he
could not comment until mid-December at the earliest, and might not
be able to comment at all on the case.
For
his part, Uechi is preparing to go back to Fukushima.
He
hopes to find a job in the decontamination around the plant that is
being undertaken so tens of thousands of evacuees can return home.
His unemployment benefits ran out in June and his family needs the
money, he said.
