Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 November 6 - 12 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

TEPCO will raise hazardous duty pay for Fukushima Daiichi workers

Tokyo Electric Power Company will provide an additional 10,000 yen per day as hazardous duty allowance to workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, as the Japanese Communist Party repeatedly demanded in the Diet.

TEPCO President Hirose Naomi on November 8 at a news conference announced this plan and said that the utility will request its sub-contractors to pay their workers at the crippled plant the increased 10,000 yen daily pay.

JCP lawmaker Shiokawa Tetsuya at meetings of the House economic committee repeatedly urged that Fukushima Daiichi workers, who are exposed to the dangers of radiation, deserve to receive a hazardous duty allowance.

At the November 8 meeting of the economic committee held after Hirose’s news conference, Shiokawa demanded that the government also instruct TEPCO and all companies under its multi-layer subcontracting system to provide fair wages to all of their workers.

Economic Minister Motegi Toshimitsu in reply said the government will work to improve the working conditions of the Fukushima Daiichi workers in order to bring about the earliest possible containment of the accident.

TEPCO announced the increase of wages as part of the new emergency safety program for the Fukushima NPP workers. It includes various improvements in the labor environment, such as an increase in the number of the staff at the plant, the additional construction of a rest station for the workers, and the installation of a meal service center near the plant.

Past related article
> TEPCO should instruct Fukushima subcontractors to pay hazardous duty allowance to workers: JCP Shiokawa [October 31, 2013]