Japan Press Weekly

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2016 October 19 - 25 [LABOR]

JCP’s efforts lead to victory of 7-Eleven workers fighting against wage theft

Japanese Communist Party Diet efforts have forced Japan’s largest convenience store chain Seven-Eleven to end its wage theft from its workers, Akahata reported on October 19.

According to Akahata, in response to instructions from the Labor Ministry, Seven-Eleven Japan modified its computerized payroll system in line with the points raised by JCP member of the House of Councilors Tatsumi Kotaro.

Tatsumi said that Seven-Eleven Japan’s decision was a step forward. He added that he will keep working to improve the working conditions of convenience store workers.

Tatsumi previously took up the issue of wage theft at Seven-Eleven stores (March 28). At that time, he explained that the convenience store giant uses a computer system which records when workers arrive or leave their stores in units of minutes. However, when calculating the amount of each worker’s pay, the company rounds up workers’ starting time of work and rounds down the ending time to the nearest 15 minutes, Tatsumi said. Tatsumi pointed out that under this wage system, if a worker works 240 days a year for an hourly wage of 900 yen, the worker would lose up to 100,800 yen annually. The JCP lawmaker demanded that the government instruct Seven-Eleven Japan to review its wage payment system. Labor Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa in reply said that a violation of the Labor Standards Law is suspected and that the ministry needs to address the matter.

Following Tatsumi’s criticism, Seven-Eleven Japan on August 23 sent to its franchisees a written notice that it decided to change the wage system so that workers’ wages will be calculated in units of minutes instead of in units of quarters of an hour. The written notice also states that it is illegal to round up or down the number of hours worked.

Past related article:
> More than \100,000 in annual wages of part-timers might not be calculated at 7-Elevens [March 29, 2016]