TEPCO wants money back from workers (2)

 January 6, 2014

TEPCO demands families of employees return compensation for evacuation

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140106p2a00m0na019000c.html 

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant, is demanding that the families of employees return compensation paid to them for being forced to evacuate from their neighborhoods due to the nuclear disaster, sources close to the case said.

In one case, a household is under pressure to return more than 30 million yen in damages from the company, raising concerns about future livelihoods.

Critics pointed out that TEPCO's demands are unfair. "The families of employees aren't responsible for the nuclear disaster. As such, the firm's demands for the return of the compensation are inappropriate," one of them says.

According to the sources, one TEPCO employee under pressure to return compensation was living with his wife and two children in a rented house in an area near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant -- where it has been deemed that evacuees are unable to return home in the foreseeable future with an annual radiation dosage of over 50 millisieverts. The family moved to another area several months after the March 2011 outbreak of the nuclear disaster.

TEPCO has paid 100,000 yen a month in compensation to each of those who have evacuated from their homes because of the nuclear crisis under the national government's guidelines. Residents of areas designated as a zone where homecoming is difficult in the foreseeable future later became able to demand a lump-sum payment of compensation over a five-year period from June 2012.

The employee demanded compensation for all his family members for the five-year period, and later received more than 20 million yen from the utility.

However, he subsequently received a letter from TEPCO's division handling compensation for the nuclear crisis, demanding that he return the compensation -- more than 30 million yen including that paid before the lump-sum payment -- to the company.

The company made the demand on the grounds that his family's evacuation ended when they moved to another rented house in summer 2011.

Under government guidelines, TEPCO pays compensation to nuclear disaster evacuees for mental anguish evacuees suffer for being unable to lead their pre-disaster daily lives. The company has continued to pay such damage to evacuees other than families of employees.

Moreover, the company covers the costs of evacuees temporarily returning to their homes in evacuation zones to get necessary items such as documents.

However, the employee's family has been not only denied such rights but has also been urged to return money that was received to buy electric appliances and furniture.

According to the sources, the families of at least four TEPCO employees have received demands that they return compensation to the firm, with two of them being required to repay over 10 million yen.

Another employee of the utility was quoted by the sources as saying, "I'm afraid because I could be urged to return the compensation at any time."

Tsuyoshi Kamata, a lawyer consulted by the families of TEPCO employees, criticized the utility's practice. "TEPCO's attitude to require families of employees to tolerate hardship is impermissible. The company needs to improve itself."

TEPCO defended its practice. "We respond to demands for compensation from our employees as well as their families in an appropriate manner," says an official of the firm's public relations department.