By YURI KAGEYAMA, Related Press
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese Excessive Court docket on Thursday rejected an enchantment by a former brokerage supervisor alleging on-the-job harassment and illegal dismissal after he took parental go away whereas working at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley.
The case of Glen Wooden, a Canadian who has lived in Japan for greater than three a long time, has come to represent considerations over “paternity harassment,” or “pata hara.” Wooden’s is a uncommon case, for Japan, of a father searching for to take parental go away. Maternity harassment is extra frequent.
Wooden started his struggle in 2017, alleging he was harassed and compelled from his job after taking parental go away when his son was born in 2015.
The corporate rejected Wooden’s request for parental go away. His son was born prematurely and he rushed to see him although the corporate instructed him to simply hold working, in accordance with the lawsuit.
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When Wooden returned to work in 2016, he was stripped of a few of his duties and excluded from enterprise conferences, in accordance with court docket testimony. The corporate dismissed him in 2018.
In a 21-page ruling, the Tokyo Excessive Court docket rejected the harassment claims. It defended the corporate’s acts as “inevitable.”
Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley stated Thursday’s ruling confirmed the corporate’s view had been accepted.
Wooden stated he would take his case to the Supreme Court docket, even when which means the authorized battle may proceed till his son, now 6, is in faculty.
“Harassment is rarely a suitable type of administration,” he stated at a information convention on the well being and labor ministry.
Wooden now heads his personal firm, which offers transport administration, company governance, environmental options and different companies.
Japan’s inhabitants is shrinking and its start fee is among the many lowest on the earth. Regardless of the end result of Wooden’s case to date, the federal government has made parental go away a coverage precedence, permitting absences of as much as 12 months. However precise observe hasn’t lived as much as the legislation.
The Tokyo District Court docket dominated in opposition to Wooden in 2020, saying it didn’t discover “affordable grounds” for believing there was harassment. It additionally criticized Wooden for taking his case public as a substitute of quietly resolving the dispute with the corporate, which has made some modifications to its parental go away insurance policies since Wooden’s dismissal.
Yoshitatsu Imaizumi, one in every of Wooden’s legal professionals, stated the case nonetheless could possibly be contested on varied grounds together with Woods’ dismissal for having complained about harassment. That will doubtlessly violate the fitting of staff to deliver up harassment, he stated.
Wooden, who has appeared in court docket and information conferences along with his son, stated he was not giving up his struggle to make sure males can take parental go away with out concern of retaliation.
“Standing up for parental rights is definitely a present that I’ve been given. And I’m blissful to try this, not just for Japan however for the world,” he stated.
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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