On July 1, four former employees of the Japan unit of American Airlines filed for a court action to reinstate their jobs, saying they were unfairly dismissed by the U.S. airline after the flight reservation business was farmed out to another company.

According to the filings made with the Tokyo District Court for an injunction, American Airlines gave notice in January that 15 employees in the reservations department would be furloughed as work would be commissioned to an Australian company and 13 of them were laid off by the end of April.

The four former employees said there was no need for reducing staff and no efforts were also made at transferring them to other positions or taking other measures to avoid dismissal.