"TCL日本法人の元社員、解雇無効訴え提訴　パワハラで精神疾患に、復職後の時短勤務認めず", 24 Aug 2020

[Excerpt translation from Japanese to English provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.]

…A Chinese woman formerly employed at TCL Japan Electronics, a Japanese subsidiary of Chinese electronics giant TCL, filed a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on August 24. She is seeking approximately 14 million yen for illegal dismissal, damages resulting from power harassment, and unpaid wages…

She alleges that half a year into her job, the former president began harassing her. In addition, the vice president and supervisor would make fun of her, saying, “Do you understand Japanese?” In March 2019, the former president asked her to resign. He told her, “If you don’t choose to resign, we will punish you by firing you.” He further said, “ We’ll continue to push you out of the company.”

At the end of March 2019, the employee developed an adjustment disorder and took a leave of absence until the middle of June. After three month of leave, her primary physician told her, “It is recommended that you start working for four hours and return to regular work hours after a two-month period.”

However, the company did not allow her return to work on the reduced hours. It also determined that she had completed her leave of absence, handing down an automatic resignation as of 24 October 2019.

The employee joined a labour union and engaged in collective bargaining with her employer. However, the negotiations ended when the company prohibited her from returning to work, stating that “if she can only work four hours, she hasn’t fully recovered from the illness that led to her leave of absence in the first place.”

The central question in the lawsuit is whether the employee had recovered from her illness and—because of her illness—whether she was legally allowed to return to work with reduced hours…

TCL Japan Electronics said, “We haven’t received the complaint and cannot confirm the details of the case. We refrain from making comments at this time.”