News Sacked Twitter Japan employees consider legal action

[thomas]

Japan is/was Twitter's second biggest market. However, Twitter Japan too was affected by the wide-scale sacking of employees. Inspired by news of the class-action lawsuit in the United States, Kazushi Nagayama, founder and CSO at consulting firm JADE and ex-Twitter employee who left the company in 2021, wrote a widely shared blog post urging former staffers to consider their legal options, speculating whether Musk may have breached Japanese employment law.

Nagayama estimates that at least a dozen ex-employees were considering some form of legal action, with many approaching him for lawyer recommendations. [...] It is generally considered difficult to lay off employees in Japan. While staff can be let go due to dire financial circumstances, companies typically need to prove they have been operating in the red, demonstrate that attempts were made to avoid dismissals and, if lay offs are called for, show that the selection process governing dismissals is carried out in a fair and objective manner. Employment lawyers in Japan have already tweeted offers to help those affected by the layoffs. One such individual is lawyer and Youtuber Takeshi Okano, who announced his intention to sue Elon Musk and Twitter on the platform, where he also shared a hotline for free legal consultation. Like Nagayama, he urged ex-employees to refrain from signing any documents that said they agreed to leave the company.

Following mass Twitter Japan firings, some call for legal action

As former employees in the U.S. mount a class-action lawsuit in the wake of job losses, speculation Elon Musk may have breached employment law in Japan grows across his platform.

www.japantimes.co.jp