Tecmo taken to court for alleged labor law offenses

Following the release of Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Microsoft Xbox 360, things have gone way South for the people over at Tecmo. As if the departure of iconic game maker Tomonobu Itagaki and some key Team Ninja members wasn’t enough, a big lawsuit has been filed against the company for alleged violations of the labor laws in Japan. More details after the jump.

The events that followed Ninja Gaiden 2‘s launch haven’t been too lovely for Tecmo. For one, star developer Tomonobu Itagaki has left the fold and it didn’t take long for other key Team Ninja members to follow suit. Today, Japanese website Jiji reports that the long time publishers are in even more hot water.

Disgruntled Tecmo employees have apparently filed an 8.3 million yen (US$77,000) lawsuit against their employer for several violations of Japanese labor laws. The case filed in court represents some 300 Tecmo employees with salary disputes.

According to the lawsuit, Tecmo has been illegally placing employees under “flexible schedules” for four years now. This allegedly allowed the company to get away with not paying hundreds of hours’ worth of overtime wages. This forced the hand of the Tecmo Labor Union to take immediate action.

Other allegations against the game company include the falsification of corporate documents and cover-ups of accounting papers. We’ll give you more updates as they come.

Via Jiji