7.2 billion yen paid to 63,000 workers as overtime for 6 months

The Japanese Communist Party's call in the Diet for unpaid overtime to be ended, and the efforts of workers and their family members to expose such unfair company practices have led to the payment of 7.2 billion yen to 63,872 workers in back pay for unpaid overtime work.

The Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry on November 28 announced that local Labor Standards Inspection Offices ordered 403 companies to pay for the overtime worked in the six months from October 2002 to March 2003 without pay.

A breakdown by industries shows that overtime work without pay is prevalent mainly in the manufacturing industry.

On average, a company paid 1.8 million yen and each worker was paid 110,000 yen.

A bank with 1,000 employees has not allowed employees to report how many hours they worked overtime. In other cases, companies told workers to report less than four hours a month as overtime hours worked, and in other cases companies tampered with the work records. (end)