Konami Mom Wins Discrimination Lawsuit

[Hevva]

Konami Mom Wins Discrimination Lawsuit

After being demoted upon her return to work from maternity leave, former Konami staffer Yoko Sekiguchi has been awarded $12,000 in damages.


After taking maternity leave from her position at Konami in late 2008, former employee Yoko Sekiguchi returned to work in the spring of 2009 to find that her employers had demoted her and cut around $2,000 from her monthly salary. When asked why this had happened, Sekiguchi's bosses apparently said it had something to do with her new childbearing "burden."

Japanese law guarantees women 14 weeks maternity leave at 60% of their salary, or a whole year unpaid. It would appear that Sekiguchi took around six months maternity leave.

Sekiguchi made the decision to sue Konami [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/92549-Konami-Employee-Fights-Discrimination] for $422,000 (which stood at $343,000 when the case first began) in damages over her demotion soon after it was levied in 2009, remarking at the time that, "This is discrimination aimed at female employees who chose to take maternity leave. I decided to take legal action because fellow female employees are experiencing the same type of treatment."

Now, almost three years after Sekiguchi filed the case, the Tokyo High Court has awarded her $12,000 in damages. While that number pales next to the amount Sekiguchi originally asked for, it's still a victory of sorts.

Konami said it wouldn't comment until its representatives had read the court's ruling in full. Sekiguchi, however, said that, "I want the company to be a place where people don't have to choose between two alternatives: career or kids."

Her last comment will strike a chord with many working women across the professional world, including those in the games industry. Prior to her demotion, Sekiguchi negotiated licensing deals for Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer franchise; whether or not having a family presents such a "burden" to a worker that they can't continue in a position like that is not something that their boss has the right to decide before they even return to work.

If Konami has an official response to this case, it'll make for interesting reading (unless it's just "yeah the judgement's pretty sound good luck Yoko bye" or something). We'll keep an eye out for that, and anything which could clarify why Sekiguchi's payout was so much smaller than her claim, over the coming weeks.



Source: Kotaku [http://www.asahi.com/edu/news/TKY201112270490.html]



Permalink

 

[Noble_Lance]

I think there is some merit to it depending on Yoko's home situation and her job. If she's a single mother, and has to keep leaving work during a week to handle situations with her child, and her job is a high stress, high demand. Then in a weird way it does make business sense for them to cover their loses. That being said, its still a dick move to demote her and cut her salary without discussing it with her first, at the very least reassign her to a less demanding position at the same pay.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I think there is some merit to it depending on Yoko's home situation and her job. If she's a single mother, and has to keep leaving work during a week to handle situations with her child, and her job is a high stress, high demand. Then in a weird way it does make business sense for them to cover their loses. That being said, its still a dick move to demote her and cut her salary without discussing it with her first, at the very least reassign her to a less demanding position at the same pay.

No. There is no merit to a company giving a woman a demotion and pay cut because she had a kid. If she goes to work and can't do her job, that's one thing. But you can't decide that someone deserves a demotion before they do anything to earn that demotion. It's bullshit, and I'm fairly apalled(but utterly unsurprised) that the court decided on such an insignificant penalty for such blatant discrimination.

 

[Zeetchmen]

Oh those kookie xenophobic mysonginists the Japanese...

 

[RaikuFA]

Oh those kookie xenophobic mysonginists the Japanese...

That there's racism my son.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Klan meeting to attend.

In all seriousness, thats a dick move there Konami, shame on you.

 

[Xan Krieger]

She wasn't discriminated against, she took a good deal longer then the allowed time and that's her fault. If she'd have returned to work in the time frame she was supposed to then she'd have never been demoted.

 

[orangeban]

Hmm, she took 6 months maternity leave? I'd be interested how that worked, did she get the first 14 weeks at 60% and then took nothing for the remaining time? I think we shouldn't be hasty and assume she was doing something she wasn't allowed to do. Notice that Japanese law guarantees certain amounts of money for certain amounts of time, the company is free to pay more money than that.

Anyway, it's good to see a company told that they can't do stuff like this, companies need to toe the line more.

 

[Callate]

I would like to know if she's still with the company, and if so, if she got her original pay rate re-instated. I'm glad she won her case.

People are making a lot of unwarranted assumptions based on the fact that she took six months off, given that we don't know if she received pay for any portion of that period or any conditions she may have negotiated with Konami prior to taking her leave. Nothing in the article even vaguely suggests that her pay cut was in some way punishment for the leave itself.

 

[LilithSlave]

I love Konami and I think this was horrible of them to do. I'm glad she won.

 

[MrTub]

If she is allowed 14 weeks maternity leave, but in fact took 24 weeks paid maternity leave, she should be happy to still have a job at all.

If she took a year without pay and came back early, then I can see her being upset and sue.

People need to take these choices seriously when deciding to have a child.

Perhaps she took a year without pay and then decided that she needed the money and went back to work after 24 weeks?

I didnt read anywhere that she took 24 weeks paid maternity leave

nvm I misread. My fault.

 

[Callate]

Perhaps she took a year without pay and then decided that she needed the money and went back to work after 24 weeks?

I didnt read anywhere that she took 24 weeks paid maternity leave

nvm I misread. My fault.

It doesn't say it was paid leave. It just says it was leave.

It would appear that Sekiguchi took around six months maternity leave.

 

[MrTub]

Perhaps she took a year without pay and then decided that she needed the money and went back to work after 24 weeks?

I didnt read anywhere that she took 24 weeks paid maternity leave

nvm I misread. My fault.

It doesn't say it was paid leave. It just says it was leave.

It would appear that Sekiguchi took around six months maternity leave.

I ment that i misread what the person I was quoting was saying, not the article.

 

[ChaosEternal]

The easy solution to the problem would be to just not have children. Something really would need to be done about that, with 7 billion people we really can't support many more. We will eventually cause large parts of the world population to die off due to stuff we cause due to overpopulation, like an actual lack of food, and climate changes. Not that we could ever regulate the population of the world. I doubt any country and few of its people would agree. So basically we are screwed in the end unless human nature drastically changes.

Back on topic, this is a pretty strange thing of Konami to do. They seem to have judged the affect on her work caused by the new child before she returned to work. I don't think they understand you evaluate AFTER the employee has done work for you to evaluate. >_>

 

[Suave Charlie]

The easy solution to the problem would be to just not have children. Something really would need to be done about that, with 7 billion people we really can't support many more. We will eventually cause large parts of the world population to die off due to stuff we cause due to overpopulation, like an actual lack of food, and climate changes. Not that we could ever regulate the population of the world. I doubt any country and few of its people would agree. So basically we are screwed in the end unless human nature drastically changes.

Back on topic, this is a pretty strange thing of Konami to do. They seem to have judged the affect on her work caused by the new child before she returned to work. I don't think they understand you evaluate AFTER the employee has done work for you to evaluate. >_>

Fun fact, first world country's populations are declining. It's countries like Africa and co that are producing well beyond their means and counteracting the wealthy country's pop decline to increase the world population overall.

 

[Wintermoot]

I get both sides of the story it,s obvious she wants a maternity leave but half a year?

 

[Noble_Lance]

I think there is some merit to it depending on Yoko's home situation and her job. If she's a single mother, and has to keep leaving work during a week to handle situations with her child, and her job is a high stress, high demand. Then in a weird way it does make business sense for them to cover their loses. That being said, its still a dick move to demote her and cut her salary without discussing it with her first, at the very least reassign her to a less demanding position at the same pay.

No. There is no merit to a company giving a woman a demotion and pay cut because she had a kid. If she goes to work and can't do her job, that's one thing. But you can't decide that someone deserves a demotion before they do anything to earn that demotion. It's bullshit, and I'm fairly apalled(but utterly unsurprised) that the court decided on such an insignificant penalty for such blatant discrimination.

I said If she had to do those things then yes she should have been demoted, but no they did it before it got to that point. At least she won on some level, that sets the stage for future lawsuits

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I'm quite shocked that this is even an issue in modern employment demoting someone for having a kid and trying claim she was a burden, hell the office I work for even offers a couple weeks paternity leave to fathers. I mean its not like the women just suddenly had a baby giving them no time to arrange plans to cover her position for when she takes her maternitty leave. And from what I understand she took the option to have a year unpaid leave but decided to come back six months early, so the only burden I can think of to Konami was either hiring a temp for six months or having someone else in the company cover her duties. But again the place I work moves staff to other departments all the time to cover when people are on leave. I really see why the situation at Konami was any different.

Anyway glad she has got some compensation out of this and hopefully will will similar cases be resolved.