Back in June, we first broke the news that two Team Ninja employees filed suit with the Tokyo District Court for unpaid wages, demanding 8.3 million yen (US$77,000) in payment. According to the suit, the workers were illegally placed on a "flexible hours" work scheme on June 16th, starting four years ago. From that point, overtime wasn't paid, apparently. The plaintiffs represented all 300 Tecmo employees and contest that because of this dubious employment structure, overtime for the employees exceeded over 100 hours per month in unpaid overtime. Tecmo developer Hiroaki Ozawa was one of the plaintiffs in the case, and since February has headed up the "Tecmo Labor Union". The suit even claimed that Tecmo had created false documents and had covered up accounting documents. Today, Tecmo announced a judicial settlement has been reached. Translated statement after the jump.
Regarding the litigation against our company, on September 1st a settlement was reached as indicated below: Settlement for the Lawsuit Has Been Reached On July 16th, two of our employees brought suit against our company regarding unpaid overtime in the Tokyo District Court and presented a proposed settlement. On September 1, 2008, a judicial settlement was reached.
Does that mean a Itagaki vs. Tecmo is around the corner?