Japan Press Weekly

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2015 April 22 - 28 [LABOR]

Lawyers call for withdrawal of government labor deregulation plan

The Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom (JLAF) on April 24 released a statement urging the government to withdraw two bills regarding labor deregulation policy which includes the establishment of the so-called “zero-overtime-payment” system.

The two bills designed to revise the Worker Dispatch Law and the Labor Standards Act were submitted by the Abe government to the current Diet session.

At a press conference that the JLAF held on the same day at the labor ministry building, lawyer Sumi Ken’ichiro referred to the expansion of the discretionary labor system and the creation of the zero-overtime-payment system, major components in the attempt to revise the Labor Standards Act. He criticized the government for intending to impose excessively long working hours and unpaid overtime on workers without limit.

Meanwhile, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) recently issued a pamphlet seeking to increase public opposition to the zero-overtime-payment system which in essence legalizes unpaid overtime.

In the pamphlet, the JFBA points out that the Abe administration is trying to overturn basic rules established for the protection of workers such as the eight-hour work day system and overtime pay requirements.

Citing the U.S. version of a white-collar exemption system which reportedly serves as a model of the Abe government’s zero-overtime-payment plan, the JFBA pamphlet states that in America, due to the white-collar exemption, more and more workers have lost their right to receive overtime pay and that this has become a major social issue in the United States.


Past related article:
> Abe to allow overtime without pay while introducing law to prevent death from overwork [April 4&7, 2015]