Meeting to review working conditions held

Severe working conditions of employees working more than 200 extra hours in a month were reported at a meeting to review workers' current situation on July 19 in Tokyo.

The meeting was organized by several organizations, including the Japan Center for Health and Safety of Working People, to help strengthen the struggle to protect workers' rights violated by long overtime work and unstable employment.

A representative of the Japan Federation of Computer Workers' Unions stated that a company's policy of putting the appointed date of delivery before the quality of goods forces employees to spend so much time at work. "Some of my co-workers work 200 to 300 hours of overtime in a month," he stressed.

The mother of a man who had worked under the discretionary work system and died from overwork reported that as a 24-year-old employee, her son had to work 3,500 hours in a year. She condemned the discretionary work system for hiding employees' cruel working conditions from their employers. (end)