OKAYAMA, Japan — A Japanese railway driver who sued over being docked one minute’s pay will have the money returned posthumously, a court has ruled. But his request for 2.2 million yen (more than $17,000) for emotional distress was dismissed, Kyodo News reports.
The driver sued last year after he was docked 56 yen (currently worth 45 U.S. cents) for a one-minute delay in departing a station on a deadhead move to a rail yard [see “Japanese rail driver sues …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 11, 2021]. The Okayama District Court ruled the penalty was unjustified because the man was still performing labor in correcting an error which led to the delay, and therefore was subject to compensation.
Rail operator JR West has since revised its practice in which delays were not treated as time at work, but said it was planning to do so even before the lawsuit.
The driver, in his 50s, died of an illness earlier this year, the news service reports.
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