◆The coming era will be strict when it comes to overtime.
The momentum behind efforts to restrict overtime is increasing.
The “Worklife Revolution” being undertaken by the government makes correcting long work hours an important pillar, bringing occurrences such as the Dentsu incident, in which a suicide was found to be caused by overwork, into sharper focus as a societal problem which companies need to help tackle, enforcing laws which require companies to put forth plans to combat death by overwork, and releasing the first white paper on overwork-related deaths, culminating in a move towards an especially severe stance towards overtime.
◆What are the upper limits on overtime under current law?
Let’s review what the recognized worktime/overtime hours are under current law.
First of all, under basic labor standards, working hours are limited to 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, however after the so-called ‘Agreement 36,’ was signed into law and adopted by the Office of Labor Standards, the recognized limit is now 45 hours monthly and 360 hours yearly.
In addition, the Agreement 36 also allows special exceptions which allow unlimited extra hours in special circumstances such as busy seasons and a project’s pre-delivery crunchtime.
An investigation by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, 94% of larger businesses, compared with only 43% of small and mid-sized businesses, take advantage of Agreement 36.
◆Agreement 36’s special exceptions don’t cover enough.
Currently, it’s impossible to be sure that you’re completely covered by the special exceptions in Agreement 36.
Even in the case of the Dentsu incident mentioned above, Agreement 36’s former monthly limit of 70 hours proved inadequate to prevent such incidents. In addition, the government is currently looking into strengthening both upper limits on overtime and penalties on companies who ignore the overtime regulations.
For companies, in order to make sure they’re in compliance with the law, it’s necessary to make more drastic effort towards reducing overtime hours.
◆The key to overtime reduction is management.
A nationwide survey of major companies published in December by the Yomiuri Newspaper, 47% said that placing upper limits on overtime was an impediment to getting work done, whereas 45% said it posed no impediment.
In a multiple choice question about what was the biggest task that needed to be accomplished in the effort to reduce long work hours, most respondents, 92%, said that the biggest obstacle was “creating revolutionary change in management’s sensibilities.” In a practical sense, methods for reducing overtime hours vary wildly depending on company size, industry, and individual corporate culture, but in every case, the key seems to be an individual company’s management.
Reducing overtime hours will have the effect of reducing the cost of overtime pay, in addition to its other benefits. We ought to proceed with implementing overtime reduction, for the benefit of companies and employees alike.
