Use ministry directive to eliminate unpaid overtime: Akahata editorial

Akahata's editorial of April 21 called for a movement to eliminate unpaid overtime work by taking advantage of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare directive calling on the ministry's prefectural labor bureau heads to take measures to eliminate such practices. Following are excerpts of the editorial:

Employers have obligation to keep workers' work time records

The hotbed of the unpaid overtime is a "workers' voluntary report" system which forces workers to report less hours of overtime than they actually worked. For example, management decides a budget for overtime allowance and cuts down on workers' bonuses if their overtime exceeds the upper limits.

This makes workers hesitant about reporting their actual working hours.

The Japanese Communist Party has requested the government to take steps to dissuade corporate management from forcing "workers to voluntarily report" their overtime. As part of such steps, the JCP proposes that companies be obligated to record the actual overtime employees worked, and that workers be allowed to check the records of overtime for themselves.

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare directive concedes the need to solve the problem of unpaid wages and excessively long working hours along with the inappropriate use of the self-reporting system. The directive states that employers have an obligation to keep records of workers' work time. If a worker complains about a discrepancy between the work time the employer has recorded and the actual work time, a company must investigate the discrepancy, the directive says.

The struggles of workers and their unions against the prevalence of unpaid overtime practices and the JCP's parliamentary activities have bore fruit and influenced politics.

900,000 job creation

According to a rough estimate, getting rid of overtime work will help create 900,000 new jobs.

We call for improvement of work conditions and the environment to reduce unemployment and difficultly in finding jobs. We propose starting a movement in all industries to get companies to have business plans that do not rely on unpaid overtime work. (end)