TOKYO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three Vietnamese men on a trainee program for foreigners in Japan have sued a construction company in Fukushima Prefecture for making them conduct radioactive decontamination work without prior notice, local media reported Wednesday.
The decontamination work of Hiwada Co., based in Koriyama in the northeastern Japanese prefecture, was related to the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
The lawsuit was filed with a branch of the Fukushima District Court, demanding the company to pay a total of about 12.3 million yen (115,874 U.S. dollars) in damages, according to the supporters of the plaintiffs.
The Vietnamese, who arrived in Japan in July 2015, was made to do decontamination work in the cities of Koriyma and Motomiya in Fukushima Prefecture between 2016 and 2018, according to Zentouitsu Workers Union, a Tokyo-based labor union for foreign trainees.
The plaintiffs also conducted pipe work in the town of Namie while evacuation orders had not been withdrawn, while their contracts only included reinforcing steel placement and formwork installation.
The Justice Ministry and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare have said decontamination work does not fit the purpose of the trainee program.
The case adds to a list of malpractices under the Technical Intern Training Program of the Japanese government, which has been often criticized as a cover for introducing cheap labor.
