Unfair Dismissal
Sample Cases
CASE 01
Disciplinary dismissal withdrawn and 2 million yen settlement obtained
Case of Client X
Client X is a male in his 40s who had worked at Company Y for 10 years.
His work attitude was good, but one day he happened to catch the attention of Colleague Z, who was close to the president of the company.
Colleague Z spread malicious rumors about Client X within Company Y, which made it difficult for him to work at the company.
Having a wife and child, Client X was unable to leave Company Y and continued to work there.
Colleague Z could not stand that Client X did not give up due to the harassment, and told the president about rumors of Client X having a poor work attitude.
The president, believing the rumors to be true, immediately terminated Client X's employment via disciplinary dismissal.
Disciplinary dismissal withdrawn in labor tribunal and 2 million yen settlement obtained
Our attorney took on Client X's request, sending certified mail to Company Y requesting that the company withdraw the dismissal and pay settlement.
The attorney representing Company Y insisted that Client X clearly had a poor work attitude and had refused all of their requests.
Client X disagreed with the disciplinary dismissal, saying that he had no recollection of any of the reasons offered to prove his poor work attitude.
We filed for the labor tribunal as a representative of Client X.
In the labor tribunal, the company was able to provide no objective evidence (only a written statement of objections raised by relevant parties at Company Y), and the dismissal was withdrawn on the date of the first hearing, with a settlement reached where the company would pay 2 million yen.
Key Points
In this case, Company Y ordered the disciplinary dismissal of Client X.
Disciplinary dismissal is the most serious type of disciplinary action, and is said to be akin to a "corporate death sentence".
It differs from regular dismissal in that retirement benefits are generally not paid and dismissal is allowed immediately (except in cases where there are separate regulatory work stipulations).
Having a disciplinary dismissal in your work history is an extremely severe punishment that can even impact the likelihood of obtaining future employment.
Therefore, it is essential that the worker remove such stains on their record by getting the dismissal overturned.
Because of the severity of its impact, disciplinary dismissal is heavily scrutinized in court and often deemed invalid except when supported by very important reasons.
Even regular dismissal based on poor work attitude is only recognized in cases it causes the company to sustain a loss or when repeated many times.
Because the company in this case had opted for disciplinary dismissal, more substantial proof was required.
The company could not prove the grounds for disciplinary dismissal, and as a result, the dismissal was found to be invalid.
Even so, Client X did not want to return to the company and requested a settlement.
The company agreed to pay Client X a total of 2 million yen, including several months of salary.