Diet enacts law to raise extra pay rate for overtime work

Friday 05th December, 02:56 AM JST

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Altria at 11:17 AM JST - 5th December

What a ridiculous law...how many Japanese companies actually pay out 45 hours of recognised overtime as it is?
Tatanka at 11:30 AM JST - 5th December

I don't see how this will reduce working hours, even at companies with electronic time tracking (like my company) the employee can alter the time worked at the end of the month....
haytkayokomiya at 11:37 AM JST - 5th December

If documented...
timeon at 12:28 PM JST - 5th December

I don't have experience in a Japanese company, but at uni the prof comes and strongly tells us not too work too many hours, to go home earlier in the evening etc. then he calls you and says: do this, this, this and this until next week. and of course, that list is impossible to make even if you don't sleep at all until next week
Dogdog at 12:39 PM JST - 5th December

The only way that Japanese companies will be stopped from exploiting their drone workers is to have Japanese workers clock on and off, and have a flying squand (s) of employment inspectors making sure that comapany employers are in/out the office according to the time clocks.

Of course this will never happen because it would be effective in stopping economic exploitation of the Japanese masses, and none of the Japanese economic and political elites want that.
thepro at 12:47 PM JST - 5th December

Yeah, and what companies actually pay it? And what workers actually stand up to their bosses to ask for overtime money?
terebiko at 12:59 PM JST - 5th December

sharky1 "competent management" here? Hahahahahaha. Look at the government and how they handle things.

They do need laws like this, but as others have pointed out, how many companies will adhere to these new laws. Many of them don't adhere to the current laws, as Altria pointed out...
Betting at 01:01 PM JST - 5th December

Are there any penalties if companies don't abide by this law?
pointofview at 01:59 PM JST - 5th December

Why do people work so much overtime to begin with?
Patrick Smash at 02:18 PM JST - 5th December

A law that will probably only have the effect of penalizing law-abiding companies that pay overtime. I agree with the law, but to be effective it needs to be backed up by a real campaign against service overtime. That's the number one issue as we all know.
timorborder at 02:36 PM JST - 5th December

Again, this is a case of whitewashing. Instead of making these spiffy new statutes, the government should be concentrating on enforcing the labor laws already in place. It is the same as the criminal law debate that was had yesterday here on JT (regarding driver licenses). Instead of over-regulating the local sheeple with a raft of laws that are not enforced, the government and its minions need to get serious about enforcement of existing statutes.
unklesam at 02:45 PM JST - 5th December

Ha ! Since when is overtime work paid in Japan ? These guys are "at" work all friggin day ! How about introducing the "punch in time card" to all major factories for a real look at what is going on in Japans sweat shops.
gogogo at 02:45 PM JST - 5th December

The main issue is companies not paying it in the first place, but a good step in the right direct I say.
gogogo at 02:48 PM JST - 5th December

pointofview: I used to think Japanese people were lazy or something but I found out that you can't actually do your job during the day because there is never a quite time, in most Japanese companies when the phone rings EVERY phone in the office rings and it's EVERYONE's responsibility to answer it. Or when your boss or manager comes you have to attend to whatever he wants to do, don't worry your busy I need help with excel now!

With this constant readiness the employee's must maintain they can't start anything because they will just be interrupted.
LFRAgain at 04:13 PM JST - 5th December

With this constant readiness the employee's must maintain they can't start anything because they will just be interrupted.

Which is why so it's not uncommon to see office workers get really busy with a flurry of activity as soon as the clock strikes 5PM. That's when they can do their actual job in earnest, rather than all the other petty, time-consuming, "relationship-building" nonsense that happens during the regular workday.