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Rebel Employees Cause Headache for Sega
Sega Enterprises (Japan) has come under fire for shutting off rebel employees in a closed room and giving them no work because they refused to transfer to subsidiary companies. A group of 12 workers claim the video game giant is bullying them into quitting.
But Sega officials say they merely abided by the workers' request to post them at the company's Tokyo headquarters and nothing can be done to avoid the fact there are no duties they can perform there.
Each of the 12 workers is a member of the company's labor union. Union officials are fuming at the case. "Transferring a full employee can only take place with the consent of the worker, but this is simply a unilateral order issued by the company," a union official said. "Anybody who refused to obey the order was shunted off into the separate room. It's outright bullying."
Sega officials, however, stand by their decision. "Nearly all employees have agreed to make the move. The 12 asked to be posted at the company headquarters and we merely did as they asked," a Sega spokesman said. "We are offering early severance packages at the headquarters, so we just can't find any work for these people to do."
Since announcing that it would no longer produce its once-popular Dreamcast video game console, Sega has been struggling to balance its books. It has responded with a huge restructuring program that saw it set up about 20 subsidiary companies that will help carry out its plan to concentrate on software.
Until now, Sega has usually lent full employees to subsidiaries, but from today, any employees sent to the affiliates will go as full employees of that company and not Sega Corp.
Sega's 12 holdouts refused to abide by such a policy. The company understood their feelings and agreed to post them at Sega's Ota-ku base. The employees' duties are defined as "waiting, because there are no foreseeable duties at the moment, with working hours continuing as they have been." The employees are forced to sit in a room from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. They must also receive permission from the personnel department if they want to leave the room.
Two years ago, Sega was also in hot water for they way it dealt with employees who the company could not decide where to post. Sega ended up assigning them to sit in a window-less room all day with no work assigned to them. Sega banned the employees from bringing into the room any of their own materials, and they were not allowed to leave the room without the permission of the personnel department.
One employee who refused to accept dismissal by the company stayed in the room. In 1999, the employee sued Sega, claiming unfair dismissal and demanding reinstatement. The Tokyo District Court sided with the disgruntled worker and ordered Sega to pay compensation. Sega appealed against the ruling and a higher court is now hearing the case.
Source: Mainichi Daily News, Japan.
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