Twelve female Sumitomo Life Insurance employees are suing the company on charges that they were discriminated against with regard to pay and promotion simply because they were married.

They are also bringing a related suit against the Japanese government. The twelve women were originally hired by Sumitomo over the period from 1958 to 1963.

Each has therefore worked for the company for over 30 years, and all are married According to the women, all were placed, under tremendous pressure to quit when they got married or became pregnant.

Moreover, they claim that Sumitomo not only deliberately operates under a system that promotes blatant discrimination between male and female workers, but also between married and unmarried women.

Unmarried female employees, they say, get greater salary raises and more frequent promotion than married and/or pregnant colleagues. The women say the system is patently unfair and they are demanding that Sumitomo, at the very least, treat them equally along with unmarried women at the company.

With regard to monetary compensation, the plaintiffs are demanding back payment of the shortfall in their salaries over the period in question, an amount which could total 248 million yen, or 2,340,000 dollars.

The women submitted their case against Sumitomo to the Osaka District Court on December 11^th, 1995, while at the same time bringing an action against the Japanese government for negligence. According to the twelve, they twice submitted their case against Sumitomo to the Women’s and Young Workers’ Problems Council. The Council is a government body, and the women formally requested arbitration between themselves and Sumitomo.

The women claim that in 1992 and again in 1994 the director of the Council flatly refused to initiate proceedings.The women claim that the director’ s arbitrary decision ‘was an abuse of his powers. They are demanding compensation in the form of punitive damages from the government.