Japan wants to put limits on the long, very long, periods of continuous work that some employees in the country can now endure. Or rather, he wants those limits to be more reasonable. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has just moved to ensure that in its companies it is not possible for a person to chain 14 or more consecutive days of work. It may seem like a lot, but right now the limit is much higher: if organized properly, the same operator can add up to 48 consecutive days at the bottom of the canyon. And without breaking the law.
The objective: improve the mental health of workers.
What has happened? That Japan wants to make working in the country’s companies more bearable. And he wants to do it by focusing on a very specific aspect: the long very long periods during which employees can chain consecutive days, going from one to another without days off, weekends or holidays.
Now, with the law in hand, the system allows an employee to spend 48 days like this. Certain conditions have to be met, but it is possible. The goal is to reduce that legal limit to 14. That would be the new red line. Everything that lasts more than 13 days, the newspaper specifies Asashi Simbunwould be left out of the legislation.
How do you want to do it? We will still have to wait for the change. At the moment it is an approach of a committee of experts convened by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Welfare that is dedicated to discussing changes in the Labor Standards Law. In any case, the proposal has sufficient range and scope for it to have been echoed by the country’s press, including media outlets such as Nikkei, the Kyodo agency or Asashi, which talk about the Government considering reviewing the tax system. organization with the 14-day proposal on the table.
Experts have also put forward other ideas on labor matters, such as simplifying the system applied to calculate overtime or ensuring that the regulations cover domestic employees. The objective now is to compile these proposals in a report that, if everything goes as planned, will be ready in March. For the Government to enact the changes, we will have to wait a little longer. They are not expected before 2026, after they have been discussed with representatives of both workers and employers.
What is the situation now? In a country like Spain, where the limit of consecutive working days is significantly lower, the Japanese system may surprise, but today the legislation allows up to 48 days of work to be chained together there. The key is in the “fine print” of the law. The rule states that companies must grant at least one day off per week to their staff members, but it gives them some flexibility when organizing leave. It allows the company to grant four days off every four weeks.
What does that mean? That if the worker’s releases are organized in a certain way, first granting him a four-day rest period followed by a long period of work followed by another four days of rest, technically the law allows that intermediate period of work to be extend 48 days. Japan Times It specifies that unions and managers can also agree on what is known as “Agreement 36”, which in practice protects workers from working even on holidays.
Why do they want to change it? The Japanese Government not only has the approaches of the Ministry of Health group. It also has data that shows how periods of 14 consecutive days of work undermine the balance of operators. According to one of the studies managed by the Executive, these phases without breaks generate higher levels of stress than those associated with the accumulation of more than 120 overtime hours in a single month. They also have another consequence, also crucial: they contribute to psychological stress and disorders that give rise to workers’ compensation.
And the figures in this regard are eloquent. Last year, 1,023 claims for compensation for mental disorders and heart diseases related to stress in the workplace were registered. The data stands out for several reasons. Its volume and especially the trend. Although approved petitions had decreased over the years, they have grown again. The thousand or so applications in 2023 is 220 more than the previous year.
Is it a new measure? This is not the first time that Japan has moved to improve workers’ conditions. One of the fronts on which it has focused is setting limits on overtime, both in annual and monthly calculations. For a few months now, for example, truck drivers and doctors working in hospitals have had to adhere to certain well-defined limits. Its limit is set at 960 hours per year. For construction workers it is somewhat lower, it is set at 720 overtime hours per year.
Japan’s attempts to bring order to overtime dates back to 2019, when the labor system reform law was activated, but for five years certain sectors in which skilled personnel are in short supply were exempt from the new limitations. Until now. Government studies show, for example, that a large percentage of doctors exceeded the limit that has now been set.
Although the country does not theoretically top the OECD and World Economic Forum list for average hours worked, overwork is a key issue in Japan. There is even a word for death by exhaustion: karoshi. In 2015 the Government spoke of just over 2,300 victims. The latest data from Statista indicates that the number of suicides related to work problems is approaching the 3,000 barrier.
Image | Beth Macdonald (Unsplash) and Erica Leong (Unsplash)
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