Following platform owner Elon Musk’s cost-cutting mass firings worldwide, former employees of Twitter Japan sent heartfelt farewells to their coworkers. It didn’t take long for talk of employment rights and Japan’s labour laws to join the discourse.
Employees in the US have already launched a class-action lawsuit on claims that Twitter broke federal and Californian law by failing to provide adequate notice before making layoffs that affected around half of the company’s workers.
The platform gained widespread popularity in Japan, the internet giant’s second-largest market, after being used by government agencies to reach out to the public amid natural catastrophes. This was a lesson that was learnt during the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011.
Kazushi Nagayama, founder and CSO at consulting business JADE and a former employee of Twitter who left the company in 2021, was inspired by news of the class-action lawsuit in the United States to write a highly read blog post advising other former employees to think about their legal possibilities.
“I noticed that there weren’t a lot of people pointing out that this was against the local law in Japan in the early hours of layoffs when people were just starting to lose access to their work Slack and the #LoveWhereYouWorked hashtag were being filled with goodbye tweets,” he said, advising those facing termination to “seek legal advice, not immediately sign any documents that the company offers and potentially start a lawsuit.”
At least a dozen former workers, according to Nagayama, were considering taking legal action of some kind, and several of them had come to him for advice on attorneys.
He remarked, “I didn’t anticipate it to blow out like it did.
Employee layoffs are typically seen as being challenging in Japan. Even though employers may be forced to fire employees due to dire financial circumstances, they must typically show that they have been losing money, that efforts were made to avoid doing so, and, if layoffs are necessary, that the selection process used to determine dismissals was fair and impartial.
To assist people impacted by the layoffs, employment attorneys in Japan have already tweeted their offers. Takeshi Okano, a lawyer and YouTuber, is one such person. He stated on the social media site his plan to sue Elon Musk and Twitter and provided a hotline for a free legal consultation. He advised former workers, like Nagayama, not to sign any documentation indicating that they had consented to quit the business.
A sense of shock and anguish has been palpable among Twitter employees in Japan over the last few days as many deal with unexpected job losses in a nation known for workplace devotion.
A current employee of Twitter Japan who spoke under the condition of anonymity out of concern for their job security expressed shock at the way the layoffs were handled. They acknowledged the necessity for a size reduction, but they objected to both the method of the layoffs and the quantity of workers involved.
Despite a shrinking staff, 10 positions with a Japan location are now listed on Twitter’s careers page.
If legal action is pursued in Japan, the new owner of Twitter will face another another obstacle.
The changes, which Musk said were necessary “when the firm is losing over $4M/day,” have drawn heavy criticism for Twitter.
Yoel Roth, head of the company’s trust and safety team, tweeted on Saturday that employment layoffs had only touched a smaller fraction of the company’s moderation and disinformation teams in response to content concerns raised by prominent voices, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Musk, who calls himself the “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator, location “Hell,” has spent the past few days going after specific critics online as he searches for ways to boost revenue, cut expenses, respond to complaints, and keep users while simultaneously promising a free speech-friendly platform in the face of mounting media pressure.
His intentions to charge $8 a month for Twitter’s verified “blue check,” according to critics, might hasten the platform’s exit from Twitter.
Musk’s go-to answer to criticism on Twitter is “$8.”
In an apparent jab at the proposal, Twitter user and digital minister Taro Kono posted a screenshot of his profile on Saturday along with the phrase “Just in case Twitter takes away my blue-tick mark.”
Musk declared on Sunday night that anyone using Twitter to impersonate another person without making it clear that they are “parodying” them will be permanently banned. This came after a number of users started using “Elon Musk” as their display name.
Musk tweeted on Tuesday that “Twitter use is at an all-time high haha,” as if he were enjoying the drama of the previous few days.
