Japan train driver sues after wages docked for a minute's lag

TOKYO • A Japanese train driver is suing his employer after his wages were docked 56 yen (67 Singapore cents) over a minute-long delay to the country's famously punctual rail system, the company said yesterday.

The driver filed the suit against the West Japan Railway (JR West) earlier this year after it fined him for a work mix-up in June last year that caused the delay, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.

He is seeking 2.2 million yen in damages for mental anguish caused by the ordeal, it said.

The driver had been scheduled to move an empty train to a garage in Okayama station in western Japan, but went instead to the wrong platform.

The mix-up delayed the changeover of drivers and meant that the train departed the station and arrived at the depot a minute later than scheduled, the report said.

JR West said it was appropriate to dock the driver's wages as no labour was performed during the mix-up. A company spokesman confirmed the lawsuit yesterday, declining to comment "as the suit is pending".

"The reason why this became a lawsuit is differences over how to interpret" the cause of the delay, he said, adding that the firm had applied its "no work, no pay" rule in docking the driver's wages.

The man, who has not been named, said the delay was a minor human error and that he should not have been considered absent from work.

Japan's rail system is famously efficient and punctual. In 2017, a local railway operator made international headlines after issuing a deep apology for the "tremendous nuisance" caused by the departure of a train 20 seconds early.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE