To uproot unpaid overtime, 'international shame' -- Akahata editorial, July 12
The Labor Standards Inspection Offices in 2002 instructed 17,077 cases to redress overtime work without extra pay.
The number of cases has jumped by 2.4 times from 7,038 in 1998, indicating that this corporate crime is now an everyday occurrence.
3.1 billion yen in back pay
Failure to pay for overtime work is an act of "wage robbery". The total sum of the back pay is enormous. In 2002, the Tokyo Labor Bureau ordered 66 companies to pay 2.27 billion yen and 52 corporations in Osaka had to pay their workers 840 million yen in back pay. More than 3.1 billion yen in Tokyo and Osaka alone!
This became possible after the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare issued a landmark instruction in April 2001 to root out unpaid overtime and tightened administrative supervision over employers across the nation. At the same time, this was a result of the struggles of whistle-blowers and their families with the courage to demand the elimination of unpaid work as well as efforts made by the Japanese Communist Party members in the Diet.
Despite growing calls for its eradication, why is unpaid overtime increasing? It is because companies are intent on carrying out corporate cost-cutting via restructuring and personnel cuts. Workforce cuts are forcing remaining employees to take on heavier workloads, and overtime pay is held down as much as possible. "Performance-based pay" that drives workers into competition among themselves is giving themselves an additional blow.
Needless to say, forcing workers to work without pay is a shameful crime, throwing corporate moral away and breaking the Labor Standards Law. Japan is one of the few countries where such illegal behavior is condemned as a social problem.
Such illegal labor practices have been exposed at Toyota Motor Corp., NEC Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and other internationally known corporations. The tendency to tolerate "unpaid overtime work as a necessary evil in international competition" must be rejected. The idea of "anything goes to increase profits" will undermine social trust in corporations and even lead to their eventual failure, as has already been proven by numerous examples of corporate scandals.
In order to protect workers' health, it is essential to eradicate unpaid overtime work which has been the main reason for karoshi (death from overwork).
What is important now to sweep away unpaid overwork is to have the Labor Ministry's guidelines implemented by all companies. The guidelines require employers to establish a system for controlling workers' working hours, to objectively record their starting and ending times, to review business structures depending on unpaid overwork, and to double-check by using more than two managers.
The government allows business owners to apply the self-assessment system for working hours, which could cause unpaid overwork, to their companies when they have unavoidable reasons. Even under the current rule, companies should fulfill their duty to record their employees' working hours.
It is outrageous that the government plans to adversely revise the Labor Standards Law in order to exclude white-collar workers from working hour restrictions, in addition to widening the range of application of the discretionary work system.
The adverse revision of the Labor Standards Law will legalize companies' illegal acts and contradict the government's policy of abolishing unpaid overtime work.
It cannot be overlooked that there are 3,750,000 unemployed people while numerous workers are forced to take on excessive workloads.
Producing 1.62 million jobs
According to the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc., if unpaid overtime work is rooted out, about 1,620,000 people could get full-time jobs, and real GDP could grow by 2.5 percent with the resultant recovery of personal consumption and an increase in leisure time. Eradicating unpaid overwork is important for creating more jobs. (end)