" 「上司のレイハラうったえたら解雇された」　韓国人男性、モルガン・スタンレーMUFG証券など提訴" 9 November 2021

[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

A South Korean employee of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, who had experienced racial harassment by his supervisor, was fired after complaining to the management about the harassment.

The male employee in his forties had worked for the company for 14 years. In March 2021, he filed a lawsuit to the Tokyo District Court against Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Ltd. and its managing company Morgan Stanley Group Inc., demanding the withdrawal of dismissal.

[…]

South Korea’s former president Lee Myung Bak visited disputed Takeshima islands on 10 August 2012, and four days later, he said Japan’s emperor must apologize for the country’s colonial rule if he wants to visit South Korea.

Following the news about the president’s remarks, a board member of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities heading the employee’s team came to his desk and exclaimed to him “Don’t insult our emperor.”

[…]

The board member became the employee’s direct supervisor in 2013. […]The supervisor came to the employee again and talked to him about the 2014 Tokyo governor election held on 9 February: “Sadly, all Koreans are not pro-Japanese like you. We need Mr. Tamogami to be the governor in order to protect Tokyo from China and South Korea.”

Toshio Tamogami ran for Tokyo governor in 2014. The former Air Self-Defence Force chief had been dismissed for writing a wartime essay, stating that the Japanese military helped the Asian countries out of tyranny and contributed to their better standard of living, rather than waging wars of aggression in the Korean Peninsula and China.

The employee looked back on that time and said, “[…]As a Korean, I felt discomfort because I couldn’t understand why the supervisor expressed his biased view against the Korean and Chinese to me, which had nothing to do with our jobs.”

[…]

Around 2016, the employee had another experience beyond his comprehension.

“The supervisor said to me that I needed to double the revenue I make in order to be a managing director. […]Then, a senior employee was transferred as a managing director to my department I had been leading for seven years. […]The senior employee had made almost no profit for four years after his transfer while I produced revenue tens of times that. Nevertheless, in 2017, the supervisor told us that the senior employee would remain in his post for one more year. I couldn’t understand why the supervisor demanded me to double the revenue while he permitted the senior employee to remain in the managing director post despite of his poor performance. The Morgan Stanley Group has a strict stance on personnel affairs. A series of these things were utterly incomprehensible not only to me but to my colleagues.”

Even after that, the supervisor came to the employee’s desk several times and expressed his biased views, including the complaint about the former president Moon Jae In and his administration over the forced wartime labour as well as the claims about South Korean radar lock-on at an aircraft of Japan’s Self Defence Force, against which the Japanese government expressed its strong protest later, saying “Ask your fellows to stop the radar transmitting.”

[…]

In March 2020, the employee reported to the HR that the supervisor's comments were harassment and discrimination.

[...].

In April, the investigation team acknowledged most of the supervisor's comments, but replied that "although 'don't insult our emperor' was coercive and offensive, it was outside of the job field and did not constitute harassment." [...] The HR also gave the employee a work order not to discuss the investigation with anyone inside or outside the company.

The employee claimed against the investigation result, but it was not accepted. He was diagnosed with "severe stress disorder" in May and took two months off work.

While on leave, the employee sent an email to the CEO[...]

[...] The employee received a reply from the international HR manager saying that they would look into the matter again, but two days later he was told that the result would not change [...]

Nevertheless, the employee tried to discuss the issue with three people through emails, including a representative of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, but was offered a settlement payment presupposing his resignation. At the same time, [...] he was ordered to stay at home indefinitely until he pledged not to contact anyone other than the HR.

[...][The employee] "refused to sign the order and sent another email to the management at the head office, questioning that the order to stay at home and intimidation of dismissal constitute harassment. The company then issued a ' official reprimand ' for breaching the work rules."

[...]

In January 2021, the company gave the employee a notice that he would be dismissed on 28 February, claiming that his emails to management due to his refusal to accept the results of the investigation and his refusal to the reprimand and order were in breach of the employment regulations. [...]

[...]