JAPAN: Former Goldman Sachs employees form a union to take on what they describe as "intimidation and harassment" of staff

Record ID: 466165

  • Title: JAPAN: Former Goldman Sachs employees form a union to take on what they describe as "intimidation and harassment" of staff
  • Date: 23rd March 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 22, 2012) (REUTERS) FOUNDING MEMBER OF GOLDMAN SACHS JAPAN EMPLOYEE UNION (GSJEU), "ADAM LEE", WEARING WHITE MASK AT NEWS CONFERENCE LEE IN MASK NEWS CONFERENCE PICTURE OF "VAMPIRE SQUID", A REFERENCE TO A 2010 ARTICLE IN "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE THAT COMPARED GOLDMAN SACHS TO A "GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID WRAPPED AROUND THE FACE OF HUMANITY, RELENTLESSLY JAMMING ITS BLOOD FUNNEL INTO ANYTHING THAT SMELLS LIKE MONEY" TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 21, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF CAFE SIGN OUTSIDE CAFE VARIOUS OF LEE IN HOODED SWEATSHIRT TALKING TO GSJEU ADVISOR TIMOTHY LANGLEY IN CAFE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER GOLDMAN SACHS EMPLOYEE AND FOUNDING MEMBER OF GOLDMAN SACHS JAPAN EMPLOYEE UNION (GSJEU), "ADAM LEE", SAYING: "Negotiations weren't really getting anywhere for a while. It lasted for a couple of months and during that time the company was basically saying to me that it's either our way or no way at all. It's just, the sense of arrogance that they were portraying, was unbelievable to me. And through that time, over a couple of months, I had found out, discovered, through social networks, through my connections with other people in the company, that I was not the only one who was facing such intimidation and harassment from the company." LABOUR LAW ATTORNEY YASUSHI HIGASHIZAWA WALKING INTO ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) ATTORNEY-AT-LAW AT KASUMIGASEKI-SOGO LAW OFFICES, YASUSHI HIGASHIZAWA, SAYING: "It's very difficult to dismiss somebody for matters of business necessity in Japan. When a company tries to lay someone off on those grounds alone, they're basically not in a position to oppose any obstructions that the employee throws up. That might be the case with Goldman Sachs. So to get around that, if a company really wants to get an individual to quit, they often flag up job-related reasons. That is to say, they accuse them of poor performance." VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF BUILDING CONTAINING GOLDMAN SACHS TOKYO OFFICES (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER GOLDMAN SACHS EMPLOYEE AND FOUNDING MEMBER OF GOLDMAN SACHS JAPAN EMPLOYEE UNION (GSJEU), "ADAM LEE", SAYING: "Towards the end I felt like sometimes people are doing something, it's not whether it's the right thing to do, it's whether it's following the law. It's like, how far can we push this and still get away with it? How far can this still be legal? How far can we push the line? I felt that has been one of the changes." TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 22, 2012) (REUTERS) MORE OF LEE AT NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 7th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Business,Finance,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVAQELDI9D0WN12VRYY0ACRRQGP
  • Story Text: Former Goldman Sachs employees in Japan have formed an in-house union to fight what they say is "intimidation and harassment" of staff at the bank.
    In February a small group of ex-employees set up a union under the auspices of Japan's Union of General Workers (NAMBU) to support staff members recently made redundant and others facing the chop.
    Leading the charge is a former IT analyst, known publicly under the pseudonym "Adam Lee" since his sacking last month.
    Lee told Reuters on Wednesday (March 21) he hid his name and face during interviews for fear that union activities could jeopardise any future job prospects in the finance sector.
    "Negotiations weren't really getting anywhere for a while. It lasted for a couple of months and during that time the company was basically saying to me that it's either our way or no way at all. It's just, the sense of arrogance that they were portraying, was unbelievable to me. And through that time, over a couple of months, I had found out, discovered, through social networks, through my connections with other people in the company, that I was not the only one who was facing such intimidation and harassment from the company," Lee said.
    But Lee told Reuters the union's main target was Goldman's "bad faith" in redundancy negotiations.
    The company told several employees, including Lee, that their jobs had been removed to cut costs. But when they refused to accept a redundancy package the tune changed, and the bank accused staff of poor performance, the union said.
    According to labour law expert Yasushi Higashizawa, foreign companies often use this as a tactic to bypass Japan's tough labour laws that require significant cuts to overheads before any cuts to personnel.
    "It's very difficult to dismiss somebody for matters of business necessity in Japan. When a company tries to lay someone off on those grounds alone, they're basically not in a position to oppose any obstructions that the employee throws up. That might be the case with Goldman Sachs. So to get around that, if a company really wants to get an individual to quit, they often flag up job-related reasons. That is to say, they accuse them of poor performance," Higashizawa said.
    Goldman Sachs declined to be interviewed but said in a statement: "We are currently in discussions with the National Union of General Workers NAMBU over a termination dispute. We are negotiating in good faith."
    An executive director named Greg Smith resigned from Goldman last week in a scathing op-ed column in the New York Times, in which he said the working environment at the bank had become "toxic and destructive".
    Over his ten-year career at Goldman, Lee told Reuters he had seen a similar change in attitudes.
    "Towards the end I felt like sometimes people are doing something, it's not whether it's the right thing to do, it's whether it's following the law. It's like, how far can we push this and still get away with it? How far can this still be legal? How far can we push the line? I felt that has been one of the changes," he said.
    The union was set up on February 10 as an intra-company group for employees below the rank of "manager" and a branch office of NAMBU.
    Five ex-employees and more than a dozen current staff are members, NAMBU says.
    Goldman employees usually shy away from publicly criticising the bank, both because it breaks the Goldman code of silence and because of non-disparagement agreements many employees sign that bar them from speaking negatively about the bank.
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