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100-hour Overtime
Said to be the worst level among the developed countries
Japanese’s “long working time”.
Will the “historic” turning point be arriving?
Today 27 February 2017,
Chairman Sakakibara of “Japan Business Federation”, representing the corporate management and,
President Kouzu of “Japanese Trade Union Confederation”, representing the labour side,
held a private top meeting.
It seemed that the topic of meeting was, whether the upper limit of overtime hour
should be set as “maximum 100 hours per month”, this issue was discussed.
Now, for the first time in Japan history regarding “upper limit of overtime hour”,
whether a clear number should be stated in law comes to a head.
In 2002, “KAROSHI” which means death caused by overwork or job-related exhaustion,
was added into the world largest English dictionary “Oxford English Dictionary”.
Since then 15 years has passed,
Japan’s “long-time working problem” has not improved.
In fact, in Japan nowadays
the upper limit of “overtime hour” meaning the working hours beyond the fixed working time,
the number of hours is not explicitly stated in law.
“Depending on each company” the management side and the labour side discuss
and set the overtime hour.
However, in case of special provisions,
there is loophole that the overtime hour can actually be “sky high”.
The government, in February 2017,
for the first time in Japan, showed a policy that
stipulated by law, a “penalty” will be introduced upon [exceeding] the upper limit of overtime hour.
As shown here the upper limit of overtime is “720 hours in one year”
which means “monthly average 60 hours”.
Furthermore, on condition that the 720-hour limit is not exceeded,
the extremely busy period will be regarded as special case
“Maximum 100 hours per month” is also allowed, such proposal is also discussed.
“Monthly 100-hour overtime” means,
for instance for a fixed-time work starting from 09:00 to 18:00,
work from then to 22:30 will be “4.5 hours” overtime.
Excluding Saturdays, as for a month with 22 weekdays,
“Monthly 100-hour overtime” means continuing working like this for the whole month.
100-hour overtime is the standard set by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
on increasing the risk of developing brain and heart diseases,
even compared with the so-called “Karoshi Line” which is “monthly 80 hours”,
this is a far larger number.
As for the proposal, the top of the management side
said that “upper limit of 100 hours is a reasonable range”,
on the other hand, the top of the labour side
strongly opposed to it claiming “utterly, impossible”.
If EU’s rule is implemented in Japan system, the overtime hour
will be calculated as “approximately montly 32 hours”.
Compared with “monthly 100 hours” which is considered in Japan,
indeed, there is quite a big gap.
At the top meeting, the management side and the labour side confirmed,
in regard to issues such as the upper limit of overtime hour,
to conduct “mutually responsible discussion” and,
aiming to “build consensus”, to continue
holding further meetings etc.
In regard to the “upper limit of overtime hour”
the management side and the labour side, by mid-March 2017,
will aim for a consensus.
Source: News Zeroイチメン (http://www.ntv.co.jp/zero/ichimen/2017/02/100.html)
