Ex-Goldman Employees In Japan Form Union To Demand Their Jobs Back
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A group of former Goldman Sachs employees in Japan are threatening legal action against the US financial giant, unless the company agrees to give them their jobs back or at least provide a better compensation package for what their “wrongful termination.”
“We are fighting for our jobs,” said a purported representative of the Goldman Sachs Japan Employee Union, during a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo on Thursday.
A group of former Goldman Sachs employees in Japan are threatening legal action against the US financial giant, unless the company agrees to give them their jobs back or at least provide a better compensation package for what their “wrongful termination.”
“We are fighting for our jobs,” said a purported representative of the Goldman Sachs Japan Employee Union, during a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo on Thursday.
The representative chose to wear a mask and use the pseudonym of Adam Lee while the press interview, though he asserted that the move was simply to reflect the conditions that retrenched Goldman employees faced.
[quote]“This mask represents the faceless entities that you find … The nameless faces are just … something that they crunch, like a number … When they want to downsize, they cast aside these nameless faces,” said Lee, as quoted by the Financial Times.[/quote]The masked former Goldman Sachs employee was accompanied by the Secretary General of the National Union of General Workers Yumiko Nakajima, who confirmed that the Goldman union was set up under its umbrella.
Alongside them was a supporter named Timothy Langley, who has been providing the Goldman Union with legal advice on Japanese Law.
[quote]”They (Goldman Sachs) terminated our employment without cause and justification. They acted in bad faith, pretended to negotiate but did not really negotiate,” said Langley, as cited by Japan Times.[/quote]“I would just like to be treated as human,” added Lee, who claimed that he was recruited by Goldman Sachs straight out of college and worked in its operations department before being laid off last August.
According to Lee, the financial firm had originally tried to pressure him into sign a voluntary termination agreement in August. Lee though refused, as the severance package to him was inadequate. Subsequently, he was told that he was being dismissed for poor performance.
“We are currently in discussions with the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo Nambu, over the termination dispute. We are negotiating in good faith,” said Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Hiroko Matsumoto in response to the union.
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The Goldman Sachs Japan Employee Union has already signed up fifteen members to its cause, with five of the employees being ex-workers, while a further ten are current employees at the company.
Yumiko Nakajima said that it was extremely rare for foreign investment bank employees to form a labour union, though her organisation had received previous similar complaints in the past.
Lee, along with the rest of the fired workers in the union, has yet to sign his pink slip with the company, though Goldman Sachs already considers him to be fired. He received a small salary in February and no pay this month
