Three Japanese Animators Sue for Unpaid Overtime
Three animators at Tokyo based anime production company Studio Easter have filed suit against their employer seeking approximately 27 million yen ($340,000 USD) in unpaid overtime wages. The employees claim that they were forced to work six-day weeks and multiple consecutive days of seven-hour overtime as deadlines approached, all without extra pay. Furthermore, when the employees requested compensation, they were told that the anime industry does not pay overtime, and their salaries were reduced. Studio Easter did not appear to present its defense during the first court hearing, but a studio lawyer confirmed plans to address the charges at a later date. Studio Easter produces background art and supplemental production art for anime including Detective Conan, Accel World, Aquarion Evol, and Medaka Box.
Source: Anime News Network
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Uh, yeah… Good luck with that lawsuit!
The animation industry world-wide has always had the best unions and the biggest support for decent, living-wage salaries! (Yeah, right!)
I have a feeling the Japanese court won’t be that sympathetic. Legal systems tend to be corporate-biased. Without documentation, I don’t see how these guys can win.
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In the US, the animation unions are a joke. They’re divided by petty squabbling between factions, buddy-buddy relationships between the animation leader union elite and studio/company CEO’s, and a separation between the “elected” leadership and general members that has become a bottomless, wide canyon.
What sane person would want to be deeply involved with that crap? And yet you have to be part of this wallet-draining exercise in blowhardiness because you can’t step on a ladder in Hollywood without being in a union!
It’s a sad reflection of the realities of society. You have these stupid cliques and unless you get invited in or know the right people, you’re not going to be part of it.
Forget egalitarianism and all that socialist B.S.
Feudalism is alive and well in many industries.
Sections of entertainment are very feudal.
I think the janitors at the studios get more respect than animators do…