#5: Animal Hold Case
Oita District Court Ruling Feb. 28, 2020 (p.157, Rodo-hanrei #1231)
In this case, Trimmer X of Veterinary Hospital Y was dismissed during her pregnancy on suspicion of theft of sales proceeds, and the court ruled that dismissal was invalid.
1. Findings of fact
Y compared the paper records of medical bills with the original data saved on the PC and searched for the lost medical bills. This is because, except for the case of a card payment, the paper bills should match the cash. On all 41 days when the paper records of medical bills were lost, X was the only one to show up for work, which was why Y decided that X was the culprit.
X denied the allegation and asked the police to contact her, but the president of Y asked her to confess (she was subsequently reported to the police at a later date). The police also heard from X, but it seems that subsequently there was no progress in the investigation. Under these circumstances, Y dismissed X.
The civil court held that this would not prove X's crime, including the possibility of an external theft and the possibility of loss of the medical bills for other reasons, and judged that dismissal was unreasonable. This finding is based on the level of proof that is used in criminal cases, i.e., the principle of "beyond a reasonable doubt." In other words, the judge denied Y's assertion by showing some examples of "reasonable doubt" such as in the level of proof asserted by Y, there is also the possibility of an external theft or the loss of the medical bills being for some other reason.
2. Practical points
For example, in a case where work hours differ from those stamped on a timecard, the fact-finding may be based on rather vague proof, such as the assessment that the employee started working 30 minutes early, based on the employee's daily behavior pattern, etc.
However, the severity of dismissal that would change the living environment of employees, and the fact that it was not irrelevant to the outcome of the criminal case, necessitated extremely strict verification.
Article 9, para.4 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA) provides that employers must be able to prove the reasonableness of dismissal of a pregnant woman (more precisely, the provision of law stipulates not only stating the applicability of the reason for dismissal but it is construed that the reasonableness must also be evidenced). Some may think that such strict proof is required only if this provision applies.
However, the situation for a long time has been that under the legal doctrine of abuse of right of dismissal (Article 16 of the Labor Contract Act), the company has had to prove the reasonableness of a dismissal in practice. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to explain the reasonableness of such decision, when there is a finding that there was theft even though no decision on guilt was presented as a criminal case in a case where a damage report was submitted and a criminal investigation was conducted, even though civil procedure is different from criminal procedure. In addition to that, the fact that the provisions of the EEOA are referred to in this judgment is not in the issue of the fact finding for the above grounds for dismissal, but only in the part of the derivative issue of the right to claim wages after dismissal.
Therefore, it does not seem that proof at such a strict level is required only in the case of dismissal of a pregnant woman.
As a practical point, it should be considered that a criminal act may need to be proven at a fairly stringent level, as in this case, especially in cases where dismissal is due to being the perpetrator of a crime.
※ Japanese original
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