Toyota Reaches Settlement Over Workplace Harassment Suicide Case

(RTTNews) - Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) has apologized and reached a settlement with the family of an engineer, who killed himself due to repeated harassment from his boss.

The 28-year old engineer died by suicide in 2017, after he was regularly abused by his boss. The boss even told him that "It would be better if you died." His suicide in 2017 was ruled by a regional labor bureau as a job-related death in 2019, entitling his family to compensation.

Toyota has vowed to crack down on harassment in the workplace to ensure employees' safety. The company also apologized and said that the company are "facing up with true sincerity to the fact that a precious worker's life was lost."

Toyota said that it will improve workers' health care, better evaluate management, educate workers and encourage a workplace culture where employees can speak up, which will prevent future harassment.

"Toyota promises to work on developing people who, each and every one, can take an interest in those around them, under our stance that power harassment should never be tolerated," the company said in a statement.

The amount of compensation the family will receive was not disclosed.