Japan Press Weekly

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2013 December 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Labor ministry conducts first ‘black corporation’ survey

The Labor Ministry on December 17 released the results of its first survey on alleged “black corporations” which use young workers as disposable labor.

The ministry carried out this investigation in September following growing public awareness of this issue following the Japanese Communist Party’s major advance in the July Upper House election. The JCP made a campaign pledge to tackle black corporation issues.

The labor inspectors found violations of labor laws in 82% or 4,189 of 5,111 companies surveyed, and instructed them to address these violations.

The two most common cases in violation of labor laws are “illegal overtime work” (43.8%) and “overtime without pay” (23.9%).

Meanwhile, 24.1% of the companies have their employees work overtime more than 80 hours a month and 14.3% more than 100 hours. The labor ministry in its guidelines for preventing karoshi, death from overwork, states that working more than 80 hours of overtime a month could cause work-related deaths.

One company appointed 70% of its employees to managerial positions in name only in order to avoid paying overtime allowances because the Labor Standards Law excludes those who have the authority to make management decisions from receiving compensation for overtime.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Yamashita Yoshiki, who heads the JCP parliamentarians’ task force on black corporation issues, pointed out that young workers’ demands and increase in movements have pushed the ministry to conduct its first survey on black corporations.

Although more than 80% of companies surveyed were found to be in violation of labor laws, it is just the tip of the iceberg, he said. Yamashita expressed his determination to create a law to regulate black corporations which the JCP submitted to the latest session of the Diet.

Past related article:
> Labor ministry will inspect 4,000 ‘black corporations’ [August 9, 2013]