Excel, a fully-owned subsidiary of Matsushita, dispatches teachers to Matsushita amongst other companies. Excel’s stance had been that these teachers were not employees but that they were self-employed sub-contractors. In 2003, the General Union was able to have Matsushita recognize some of our members as employees, with the rest being recognized as such as of December, 2005. This meant that teachers now qualified for regular employee benefits such as paid annual leave.

The sticking point in negotiations was that Matsushita was unwilling to address losses our members had incurred in regards to pension contributions (two members have been working there 30 years) and years of failure to provide paid holidays.

Matsushita-Excel has come back to the bargaining table with a new attitude and we hope this matter will be resolved without the need to go ahead with strikes.