Unpaid overtime work at Toyota Motors exposed in parliament

A Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors raised
questions about unpaid overtime work at Toyota Motors and its affiliates on
December 11.

Questioning on behalf of the JCP at an Upper House Committee meeting,
Hatta Hiroko cited an example in which a worker's overtime that lasted until
4 a.m. was never recorded by the company. She also read a letter from a
woman complaining that her husband works 15 hours every day but is paid only
for 8 hours a day.

Hatta said that such illegal unpaid overtime should not exist in the
first place, and that the judiciary measures may need to be taken to
penalize these outrageous offenses.

Hibi Toru, Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry's Labor Standards Bureau
director, replied that the bureau in January instructed Toyota to pay for
overtime for which the company had not paid, with the result that the
company paid nearly 9 million yen to 83 workers as payment for their unpaid
overtime.

Hibi also revealed that a special agreement between the management and
the company union allows workers to work up to 720 hours overtime a year.

JCP Hatta pointed out that 720 hours overtime a year is exactly twice
what the former Labor Ministry put forward as the upper limit for overtime.
Hatta demanded the ministry strictly supervise the company to confirm
shortened overtime working hours.

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Sakaguchi Chikara replied that he
wanted the company to observe the 360 hour limit as much as possible, and
that bypassing the limit by special arrangements should be avoided. (end)