Japan Press Weekly

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2012 October 3 - 9 [LABOR]

4.1 billion yen in overtime wages unpaid to central gov’t workers

Unpaid overtime wages for workers of central government ministries in 2011 amounted to more than 4.1 billion yen, according to their union’s research.

The research received responses from 2,582 union members, amounting to 7.5 percent of all 34,200 rank-and-file employees working at the government office district of Kasumigaseki in Tokyo.

Based on the response by 66.2% of respondents that their overtime wages were unpaid, the research estimated that the unpaid salary per worker was 120,503 yen.

It also found that on average, government employees worked 38.3 hours of overtime a month, up by 3.2 hours from the year before.

Those who work more than 80 hours of overtime a month, the danger line for possible karoshi (death from overwork), was 9.5%, 1.9% more than the previous year.