KLM Royal Dutch Airlines employment termination invalid - Tokyo District Court approves permanent transfer of 29 employees.

On the 27th, the Tokyo District Court ruled in a case in which 29 members of the Japan Cabin Crew Union (JCU) demanded KLM withdraw its decision to terminate employment of Japanese flight attendants in order to avoid a five-year indefinite turnover period. The court ruled that all of the plaintiffs had been granted indefinite transfers of employment and that the stoppage of their employment was invalid.

Since July 2018, KLM has been forcing Japanese contract-based flight attendants to stop their employment just before they became entitled to a permanent change of employment after five years of continuous employment.

Dutch law has a provision that a fixed-term worker is deemed to be employed for an indefinite period of time if his/her employment continues for more than three years. The plaintiffs argued that Dutch law applied and that they were entitled to a permanent transfer of employment.

KLM's recruitment procedures, training, and scheduling of Japanese flight attendants are also conducted at the company's headquarters in the Netherlands, and the ruling applied Dutch law based on the "Act on General Rules," which stipulates the legal application of international contracts, and approved the indefinite transfer.

At a press conference held at the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare after the ruling, the plaintiff woman said, "I was offered a contract with a upper limit on it just before my contract was up for renewal, and was wrongly told that foreigners could only work in the Netherlands under a fixed-term contract. No easy way to cut off workers who protect the safety of the skies is acceptable,” she stressed.

The Tokyo District Court also ruled against KLM in January last year, invalidating the termination of three other JCU members who had been employed for more than five years, including a two-month training period, on the grounds that they had already been converted to permanent transfer.

How to prevent potential harassment

The "Quantitative Survey on Harassment in the Workplace," conducted by the PERSOL Research Institute, suggests that although it may not seem that there is no such thing, in reality, there is a possibility that some employees are leaving their jobs due to harassment.

◆Potential reasons for turnover

There are approximately 870,000 people who leave their jobs due to harassment annually (in 2021), and about 70% of them do not inform their companies that harassment is the reason for their leaving. In addition, only 17.6% of the harassments were actually addressed by the company.

In a situation of continuing labor shortages, the existence of harassment that is unrecognized or unaddressed by the company is not good for society or for the company's management.

◆Evasive Management"

As harassment has become an issue, supervisors have adopted an "evasive management" approach to avoid harassment, such as not inviting subordinates out for drinks or lunch and not scolding too harshly when they make mistakes, and it seems that subordinates are feeling a sense of distance from their supervisors.

The more distance subordinates feel from their supervisors, the less they feel a sense of growth, which seems to have a negative impact on the growth and retention of human resources.

◆Listening behavior that balances harassment prevention and human resource growth

On the other hand, some supervisors are able to develop their subordinates while avoiding harassment, characterized by "listening behavior" regarding their subordinates' opinions and stories, and fairness in management. It seems that interactive communication in the workplace is important, along with deterrent measures, to both prevent harassment and help subordinates grow.

In addition to the establishment of a consultation service and prevention regulations, training for managers from this perspective may be useful in the company's anti-harassment measures.