Japan Press Weekly

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2015 November 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Union survey shows nurses at municipal hospitals are overworked and exhausted

A recent union survey on working conditions of workers at medical institutions run by local governments has revealed that the workers are exhausted due to excessively long working hours and heavy workloads.

According to the survey results published on November 13 by the Japan Federation of Prefectural and Municipal Workers’ Unions (Jichiroren), the percentage of nurses who work on a two-shift system increased to 24% from 15% in the previous survey in 2010, while the percentage of workers working on a three-shift system decreased to 49% from 61%. This means that more nurses are working longer hours.

Of the respondents, a total of 64% said that their workloads “considerably” or “slightly” increased from a year earlier and 57% replied that they are unable to have 12 consecutive hours of rest between workshifts.

In addition, 43% and 32% of the workers answered that they feel totally exhausted “everyday” and “sometimes”, totaling 75% of all nurses.