 Unpaid overtime at major delivery service partly corrected Yamato Transport, a major express delivery company, has promised to change its overtime rule that stipulates that overtime compensation will be paid only up to 40 hours per month. The workers' movement and an Akahata report have contributed to forcing the company to change its practices regarding overtime payment. Yamato Transport has told Akahata that it will stop its piecework system to compensate overtime work. "Although we feel that nothing is wrong with this system, we decided to make it clearer to employees," said the company. Under the Yamato system, only 75 hours are counted as overtime even if a worker actually worked 150 hours overtime a month. What is more, the worker is only paid for 40 hours of overtime work. The company has explained that the basic wage already includes compensation for 15.5 hours of overtime work, and that piece-rate pay can also be redirected to pay for overtime. This method of compensation completely distorts the role of overtime pay as a penalty on the employer for making workers work longer than the fixed hours. In a serial article from October 24-28 last year Akahata exposed the excessive workload and unpaid overtime at Yamato Transport. The Yamato Transport branch of the All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers Union affiliated with the National Trade Union Confederation (Zenroren) conducted collective bargaining with the company and at the same time reported to the Labor Standards Inspection Office to get unpaid overtime redressed. Although progress has been made in partly eliminating unpaid overtime at Yamato Transport, the company still maintains a system of monitoring truck drivers' moves on electronic terminals to count their working times as least as possible. Union branch Chair Morimoto Kuniaki stated that the movement should continue to eliminate overtime without pay. - Akahata June 6, 2005 |