A Frenchwoman dismissed by NHK filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the public broadcaster, claiming her radio announcer contract was unjustly terminated after she temporarily fled Japan at the start of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011, reports The Japan Times.
Emmanuelle Bodin, who had worked for NHK more than two decades, said she received permission from a superior to leave Japan with her two daughters on March 15, 2011, following an instruction by the French government for French nationals to evacuate.
Bodin told NHK that she would be back by March 30, 2011, but was notified by a letter dated March 22, 2011, that the broadcaster was terminating her yearly contract, saying she "walked off" her job.
"In order to protect my family, I decided to temporarily leave Tokyo. . . . Prior to my departure I followed the required NHK work procedures, which included obtaining permission from my management," Bodin said in Tokyo at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, where she and one of her lawyers, Kazuyuki Azusawa, held a news conference.
"I have faithfully served NHK for the past 21 years. I was very proud to work for such a prestigious organization," she said.
Bodin is seeking her job back and ¥22.17 million in damages.
She started working at NHK in 1990 as an announcer for the French section of Radio Japan. She was on a yearly contract and said NHK had renewed her contract in February 2011.
Read more of this report from The Japan Times.