Japan Press Weekly

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2015 July 29 - August 4 [LABOR]

One in ten gov’t workers at risk of death from overwork

A liaison council of unions for public workers working in Tokyo’s government district of Kasumigaseki on July 29 published survey results showing that one in ten national government workers work more than 80 hours overtime a month, exceeding the government-set danger line for deaths from overwork.

According to the union, the percentage of the respondents who passed the danger line stood at 9.6%, the highest in the last five years. Of them, more than 30% said they have felt anxiety that they might die from overwork. The Labor Ministry recognized that working more than 80 hours overtime a month might result in a fatality.

The survey results also indicated that the respondents worked 36 hours of overtime a month on average. As reasons for the long working hours, 60% of the respondents cited heavy workloads and 30% said that personnel assignments were inappropriate.

Half of the workers in the survey reported fatigue as well as mental stress and nearly 30% of them thought that these symptoms stemmed from excessively long working hours.

The union’s chair, Koike Hiroyuki, in a press conference held in the Labor Ministry office building, referred to a government survey which indicates that suicide was the second most common cause of death among government employees, following cancer. He stressed that the union will work hard to achieve better working conditions.