 Woman employee reinstated to position in foreign-owned company after 12 years of court struggle The Supreme Court on March 1 ordered a foreign-affiliated optical instrument manufacturer in Tokyo to reinstate a woman employee whom the company fired 12 years ago. Melles Griot, an affiliate of the multinational corporation Barloworld, in 1993 dismissed accountant Kuroda Hisako in disgrace on the allegation that she refused to obey a transfer order. She was dismissed the day after she refused to be transferred to a factory that would take her two hours to commute to. Kuroda filed a lawsuit demanding that the dismissal be declared void and that she be reinstated. The Tokyo District Court in 1997 ruled that the transfer and the dismissal orders are effective. The Tokyo High Court in 2000 ruled that the transfer order is effective, but declared the dismissal void because the disciplinary dismissal amounts to an abuse of the company's right to dismiss. The top court judgment has established that the high court ruling on the dismissal was invalid. Koseki Mamoru, leader of the supporters' group for Kuroda, said, "This is a landmark ruling in that the plaintiff has won her reinstatement over a dismissal on the grounds that she refused to be transferred." Akahata of March 2 said that the ruling is effective in thwarting corporate restructuring using worker transfers, change of company affiliation, or change of job categories to make it easier for a company to fire workers without paying severance pay as punishment for disobedience. (end) |