Tokyo's 21,000 corporate employees paid 2.2 billion yen in back pay for overtime work

About 19 million dollars (2.27 billion yen) in overtime back pay for the second half of FY 2002 went to 21,510 employees at 66 corporations in Tokyo, according to the Tokyo Labor Bureau.

The amount is what these corporations failed to pay employees (an extra 25-50 percent of their base hourly wages) when they worked after closing hours and on holidays.

The overtime back pay of 2.2 billion yen in six months is a sharp increase from similar back pay payments of 1.5 billion yen (13 million dollars) in the 18 months from January 2001 to June 2002.

Of the 66 corporations, 16 large corporations with between 1,000 to 5,000 employees is the biggest group responsible.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Inoue Miyo on June 19 had talks with Sada Michiaki, the Tokyo Labor Bureau director on this issue. The JCP Dietwoman asked that the bureau strengthen supervision so that corporations redress their practice of forcing workers to work overtime without pay through the "self-reporting" system regarding working hours. (end)