Farm ministry dismisses officials over 'secret union' -JAPAN

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/farm-ministry-dismisses-officials-over-secret-union

Thursday 26th March, 02:52 PM JST

TOKYO —
The farm ministry said Thursday it has sacked two of its officials for concealing the existence of ministry personnel who received salaries despite being full-time union officials, a practice banned by the National Public Service Act. The ministry said it dismissed Hiromichi Matsushima, head of the ministry’s Personnel Division, and Hiroyuki Nishiura, a senior official of the same division, from their posts.



Farm minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters earlier in the day that Matsushima has confirmed the allegation against him. The minister quoted the division chief as telling him, ‘‘If everything came to light, public trust in the farm ministry would have been lost. I wanted to protect the ministry.’’ Ishiba said his ministry will study how many of its officials have been involved in the concealment as quickly as possible. ‘‘The ministry can never have a second life unless it thoroughly reveals its various problems,’’ he said.

According to ministry officials, the division conducted a study on the ministry’s labor union in April last year, and confirmed the existence of 142 union members who were secretly working full-time for the union so they could continue receiving salaries as ministry employees.

But the division, in charge of issues related to the union, hid the findings by falsely claiming in documents it prepared for the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper that there were only 48 such union members, the officials added. The documents were to answer questions from the national daily about the union issue.


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