Saturday, April 10, 2010

"Monitoring cameras to be removed from post offices at Y3.2 bil cost"

From today's Japan Today:

Japan Post Holdings Co plans to remove monitoring cameras from about 18,000 post offices nationwide at the cost of 3.2 billion yen in response to criticism that they are "undercutting" postal staffers’ working morale, a government paper showed Friday. The paper was a written reply to House of Representatives lawmaker Mito Kakizawa of Your Party, who questioned the appropriateness of the removal plan.

The monitoring cameras have been installed in stages since April 2007 by Japan Post Corp, the predecessor of Japan Post, prior to the 10-year privatization program that got under way in the fall of the year. The cameras were part of the 70 billion yen crime countermeasures enhancement program.

In the paper, the government says the use of the cameras "has led to monitoring working behaviors excessively and has caused various negative effects, such as reducing workers’ morale."

The removal decision has been made by the management of Japan Post Holdings, the government said in the paper.

Postmasters and other postal workers have long balked at the use of monitoring cameras, saying Japan Post management "is keeping tabs on postmasters’ behavior."


Read the story and reader comments:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/monitoring-cameras-to-be-removed-from-post-offices-at-y32-bil-cost

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