Supreme Court dismisses appeal by Japan Business Lab employee who alleged maternity harassment
"マタハラ訴訟、女性元社員の敗訴確定 最高裁決定 育休後の雇止め争点", 10 Dec 2020
[Japanese-to-English translation provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.]
On 8 Dec 2020, the Third Petty Bench of the Supreme Court (Judge Katsuya Uga) dismissed an appeal in a case where a woman working at Japan Business Lab, a company that operates language schools, alleged maternity harassment. The plaintiff was fired a year after returning to work from maternity leave, at which point she switched from regular to irregular employee. In her suit, she had sued to be recognized as a regular employee by the court.
The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the district court, which determined that her dismissal was ineffective and ordered Japan Business Lab to pay one million JPY ($9,600) in damages. Instead, Judge Uga upheld the Tokyo High Court’s decision, which ruled against the plaintiff…