Japan Press Weekly

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2009 November 3 - 10 [LABOR]

Unpaid overtime work increases in large corporations

While the call for cuts in overtime work is increasing, forced overtime work without pay has become prevalent in clear violation of the Labor Standards Law.

According to the Toray Corporate Business Research Inc, in large corporation with 500 or more employees, forced overtime work has rapidly increased. So far, the average number of hours of forced overtime work without pay has been 27 hours 54 minutes a month, up 31.6 percent or 6 hours 42 minutes from that in 2008.

The Japanese Communist Party has taken up this issue almost 300 times in the Diet since 1967, calling for the eradication of overtime work without pay, and the labor ministry in 2001 issued a directive to eliminate unpaid overtime work.

Issued warnings by labor standards authorities in 2008 alone, 1,553 companies paid about 19.6 billion yen in total in back pay.
- Akahata, November 4, 2009