Unpaid overtime work in Mazda decreased by efforts of workers and JCP

In the workplaces of Japan's major automaker Mazda, efforts by workers and the Japanese Communist Party to eliminate unpaid overtime work have produced results.

At a Mazda factory in Hiroshima City, production lines started running at 8:15 in the morning. However, before activating the assembly lines, factory workers had been forced to work without pay for about 30 minutes to check the lines, get parts ready, and conduct a meeting.

Pushed by its workers, the company recognized the five-minute meeting as unpaid overtime work. Since June 14, the assembly lines have been starting five minutes after 8:15 a.m.

A factory worker, Nakahara Takeshi, said that it must have been a tough decision for Mazda because one line can make 5 cars in 5 minutes.

Nakahara and his co-workers established the association to eliminate unpaid overtime work in 2002. Supported by JCP members, including House of Councilors member Hayashi Toshiko, they have made representations to the Labor Standards Inspection Office revealing Mazda's working conditions.

In white-collar units in Mazda, employees have been able to receive around ten thousand yen a month as overtime pay since January 2003.

The company used to set the maximum amount of money that could be used by each section for the payment of workers' overtime work. After the association filed complaints about the situation with the Labor Standards Inspection Office, Mazda issued a circular ordering managers not to set such a budget.

JCP Mazda Committee Chair Matsumoto Minoru said, "We will continue to make efforts to establish rules to be able to work with human dignity as well as to achieve a major JCP advance in the House of Councilors election." (end)