All 300 employees suing Tecmo

by JC Fletcher { Jun 17th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Or, at least, representatives of all 300. As hard as it may be to believe, Team Ninja's departure isn't the worst thing to happen to Tecmo this week. The two executive officers of their labor union have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming, as both Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja (reportedly) have, that Tecmo owes them unpaid wages. Evidently, Tecmo used an illegal "flexible hours" pay scheme that denied employees overtime.

We would imagine that if Tecmo has to pay all these lawsuits out, they're done. It puts the future of their upcoming games -- Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Monster Farm DS 2, the Rygar Wii port, and the Mighty Bomb Jack revival that only existed in our minds anyway. Beyond that stuff, it's sad to see such a classic game company on its way out, and it's terrible for all those employees whose jobs may be over (though perhaps they'll end up moving to a company who pays them).

Tecmo's response to Famitsu states that they have (coincidentally) phased out the flexi-time this year, and that they were "consulting with an external specialist to ensure compliance with labour laws" while devising their systems. The Tecmo rep said that the company had discussed the unpaid wages with its employees in April, and that Tecmo was "currently calculating those unpaid wages."

Tags: lawsuit, monster-farm, tecmo, tecmo-bowl

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Metal_Link @ Jun 17th 2008 11:54AM

No spartan joke?

Alisha Karabinus @ Jun 17th 2008 12:14PM

It's just too obvious.

But it's lurking there, just beneath the surface.

Eleniel @ Jun 17th 2008 10:06PM

It may be obvious, but it's still amusing!

spyker @ Jun 17th 2008 11:56AM

Ah crap, I kinda wanted to see how the new Techmo Bowls turned out. I guess I can always just assume they would be crap and I wouldn't buy 'em.

supa_s @ Jun 17th 2008 12:09PM

Around here, we don't get paid overtime (only those stupid expats do) so I say, SUE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BlackDS @ Jun 17th 2008 2:11PM

Tecmo management = PWNED.

They should have paid the bonuses, then they would still have Team Ninja, intact.

Now they will pay those bonuses, in addition to:

(1) Attorney fees

(2) Fines to the Japan's Labor Department

(3) Unpaid overtime (probably years of unpaid overtime)

If I were a stockholder, I would ask for the heads of management on a platter.

Peace.

HellsHammer @ Jun 17th 2008 2:40PM

Some one needs to do some research on how this will affect the release of Fatal Frame for Wii...Please.

I'm aware that Nintendo is publishing it, but if Temco is out of business, there might not be much left to publish.