PMP News: Working Hours Related – Introducing stricter standards allowing for the public
disclosure of a company’s name who are in violation of the Japanese Labor Laws on excessive
working hours.
Dear All,
Earlier this month we issued a newsletter detailing new guidelines which the Ministry of Health,
Labour and Welfare released regarding the controls that employers must put in place to ensure
the effective and accurate measurement and reporting of their employees’ actual working hours.
This issue will focus on the new notifications reissued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare as part of the countermeasures to “accomplish no more deaths from overwork”.
The new notifications (Notification No. 0120 -1) list the official guidance to be issued
by the head of the labor office in each prefecture to the management of a company
that imposes illegally long working hours on its employees. The guidance also applies
when the death of an employee has been found to be from excessive overwork.
The Guidance explains the process by which a company’s name may be disclosed to
the general public when the company violates the working-hours regulations prescribed
in the Labor Standards Law.
(Notification No. 0120-1 supersedes the pre-existing Notification No. 0518-1).
Receiving a corrective action guidance and having their name disclosed to the general
public has the potential to cause tremendous reputational damage to a company.
The new notifications state that a labor authority in each prefecture or a chief of
the labor standards office will enforce monitoring systems on companies that have several
different work places throughout Japan, and are considered to have great social impacts.
The Notification Process:-
1. The chief of the labor standards office, responsible for the area where an in-breach
company is head quartered, gives an overall correction/improvement guidance
to the management of that company to be implemented at all their places of work.
As a follow up, the respective labor standards office performs an onsite inspection
to verify whether or not the correction/improvement guidance has been implemented.
If the guidance has not been implemented and evidence of illegally long working hours or
death from overwork is found at any of their work places, the company will be issued
an order for corrective action for violating the working-hours regulations in the Labor
Standards Law.
2. The corrective action order is issued to senior management of the company by the Chief
of the Labor Authority responsible for the respective Prefecture the company is head quartered.
At the same time, the company’s name and a list of violations/breaches of the Labor Standards
Law will be announced to the public by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare via social media.
We highly recommend our clients familiarize themselves with the new notifications detailed
above and to commence with remediation action if:
1. a headquarter office of a company is issued corrective actions twice a year,
2. a company has more than two workplaces issued the corrective actions in a year, or
a company has more than 10 employees or more than a quarter of the total employees in one
workplace are performing over 80 hours of overtime per month, and such working conditions are
a violation against the company’s special condition in their 36 Kyotei that has been filed with the labor office.
Please be reminded that the old inspection criterias have now been abolished, meaning
that all companies, not only companies with more than 3 branches/sales offices or 3 work-places
or companies with more than one breach in the past, are now subject to labour office inspections
and possible corrective actions and public naming should they be in breach. In recent years,
the labor office has focused on companies that have employees with more than 80 hours rather
than 100 hours of overtime per month. Because there are more companies imposing 80 hours than
100 hours of overtime work per month, this has resulted in an increase in the number of investigation.
Companies should not be complacent. The labor office can perform an onsite inspection at any time
and without any advance notice.
Please refer to the site below for more information on the new notifications and assess
the risks of each company.
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/kinkyu/dl/151106-05.pdf
It is highly recommended that companies accurately monitor the working hours of employees
(refer to the PMP News dated April 4), and take appropriate actions to improve employees’ working conditions.
These are important steps in managing the risk and avoiding being issued Corrective Actions orders
by the Labor Standard Office.
PMP has professional HR consultants and licensed social insurance professionals who can assist
companies in introducing and/or enhancing their working hour management systems.
If you would like to find out more about these services, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you.