Japan Press Weekly

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2020 November 25 - December 1 [LABOR]

Medical workers will suffer 10% cut in winter bonus despite their heroic fight against COVID-19

Despite their heroic fight against COVID-19, medical workers will receive 10% less in winter bonuses on average than that they received last year. This was shown in the findings which the Japan Federation of Medical Workers' Unions (Iroren) published on November 25 at a press conference in Tokyo.

At the press conference, Iroren Secretary General Morita Susumu said, “Since the beginning of the pandemic, medical and nursing-care workers have been serving on the frontlines with a strong sense of mission and responsibility, but are almost reaching a breaking point. The government should reward them with appropriate measures immediately.”

Iroren has conducted a survey of medical institutions’ year-end bonuses through its member unions.

According to the survey results, 44.3% of unions said that the size of this year’s winter bonus is smaller than last year’s because their facility operators are in financial difficulties caused by the pandemic. The average amount is 448,138 yen, down 43,315 yen from a year earlier. Some unions answered that their year-end bonuses are slashed by roughly 350,000 yen, the biggest cuts among unions which have bonus cuts of at least 100,000 yen per person.

The survey also found that 65.8% of medical facilities for patients with moderate or worse COVID-19 symptoms and 51.5% of facilities for suspected COVID-19 patients plan to cut their year-end bonuses for workers.

At private medical facilities where Iroren organizes workers, between April and September, the number of inpatients and outpatients decreased by 13% and 20%, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

On the day, just prior to the press conference, Iroren petitioned the government to provide sufficient financial support to healthcare and nursing-care service providers and improve PCR testing capacity.

Past related articlse:
> 80% of 3 trillion yen medical support budget left untouched [ November 21, 2020]
> Gov't support for medical system grossly insufficient [April 23, 2020]