H23･9･21 at Tokyo District Court

【Judgement】 invalid dismissal

【Company】 J. Walter Thompson

【Category 】 dismissal (mixed)

【Reference】 Rodo Hanrei 1038-39

【Position/Salary】 Creative Director / JPY 14M

【Summary】

The subject termination was implemented as part of workforce reduction measures necessitated by reasonable business operations accompanying organizational restructuring aimed at restoring profitability. The evidence presented falls short of establishing that the defendant was facing a financial crisis, or that it was on the brink of insolvency.

When the necessity for workforce reduction merely amounts to a reasonable business operational necessity, the company must implement substantially high-level measures to avoid dismissal. The measures implemented to avoid dismissal in this case, which consisted of soliciting voluntary retirements and offering severance packages as disadvantage mitigation measure , were woefully inadequate.