Photo/Illutration An Amazon employee asks his company to improve the transparency of its human resource evaluation system in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on March 3. (Ryo Shimura)

An Amazon Japan employee who felt unjustly treated under the company’s improvement plan for underperforming workers has filed suit against his company in Tokyo District Court, saying the program is used to “torment” employees.

The man, who is in his 40s, filed the labor suit arguing that the company’s disciplinary punishment it metes out including a salary cut and demotion is unfair without offering any concrete reason.

He is seeking more than 5 million yen ($46,590) in compensation.

“The plan has been used to torment employees and to fire them or cut their salaries rather than to improve their skills,” the male employee said at a news conference in Tokyo on March 3 along with his attorney and representatives of the Tokyo Managers’ Union, which Amazon Japan's labor union belongs to.

The man said that he filed the suit in support of Amazon employees who suffer under the performance improvement plan (PIP), or coaching plan, starting this season every year.

The Amazon Japan labor union revealed that it had requested the company to abolish the coaching plan at its spring labor offensive.

Amazon Japan, located in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, is a Japanese arm of e-commerce giant Amazon.com.

According to the man, he started working for Amazon Japan in May 2013 and had been promoting sales of sporting goods and home electronics.

In February 2019, his boss told him that he would be placed under the PIP because of his poor sales performance the previous year.

He was under a coaching plan for two months between April and May 2019.

The task goal set for him was to increase the goods offered under  Amazon Prime (paid membership service) by calling 200 companies who have shops on Amazon.com.

 Another goal was to increase sales through managing projects with delivery companies.

Although the male employee had achieved the goals by early May, his boss told him, “Only achieving the goals written on the paper does not mean that you have completed the coaching plan.”

He asked his boss what he should improve by the deadline, but was just told to think on his own. The boss did not clarify his remark.

The employee began to suffer from vomiting and headaches, and he was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder on May 28.

He felt the difficulty in negotiating with his company on his own, so he joined the Tokyo Managers’ Union at the end of May.

In July, he became the branch chief of the Amazon Japan labor union, and he asked the company to explain its actions in collective bargaining.

However, on Oct. 15 the company notified him of disciplinary punishment it was taking against him including a 10 percent cut in his annual salary and demotion.

The company said that “he leaked highly confidential information to outsiders,” but it refused to give a concrete explanation, which prompted him to file the suit with the court.

According to the employee, the coaching plan is thought to be applied to about 10 percent of the Amazon workforce.

An Amazon Japan official told The Asahi Shimbun, “What the Amazon Japan labor union said is not based on the facts and is unilateral. Amazon employs more than 7,000 workers in Japan, invests in employee training, supports their career growth and provides appropriate salary and benefits based on the evaluation of their contributions.”

The company does not release details of its coaching plan operation.

“We refrain from disclosing the details of each plan from the perspective of information management and privacy,” the Amazon Japan official said.

He added, “We support the employees’ career growth by communicating with them closely and providing various programs, such as training, coaching and mentorships in accordance with each worker’s strength and weakness.”

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