Japan wants to impose limits on the long, very long hours of continuous work that some workers in the country can now endure. More precisely, he wants these limits to be more reasonable. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has taken action to ensure that it is not possible for one person to chain 14 or more consecutive working days in their companies. It may seem like a lot, but 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.

Purpose: To improve workers’ mental health.

What happened? Japan wants to make working for companies in the country more bearable. And he wants to do this by focusing on a very specific topic: LONG Very long periods in which employees can chain consecutive days, moving from one day to the next, without days off, weekends or holidays.

Now, with the law, the system allows an employee to spend 48 days in this way. Some conditions must be met, but it is possible. The aim is to reduce this legal limit to 14. This will be the new red line. The newspaper states that everything that lasts more than 13 days Asashi Simbunwill be excluded from the legislation.

How do you want to do this? We will still have to wait for the change. There is currently an approach by a committee of experts convened by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Welfare to discuss changes to the Labor Standards Act. In any case, the proposal is broad and comprehensive enough to be echoed in the country’s press, including media outlets such as Nikkei, Kyodo agency or Asashi, which mention that the Government is considering reviewing the tax system with 14 provinces. The day proposal is on the table.

Experts also put forward other ideas related to labor law, such as simplifying the system for calculating overtime or ensuring that the regulations also cover domestic workers. The aim now is to compile these recommendations into a report and have it ready in March if everything goes as planned. We will have to wait a little longer for the government to implement the changes. After discussion with both employee and employer representatives, these are not expected to happen before 2026.

What is the situation now? In a country like Spain, where the consecutive working day limit is significantly lower, the Japanese system may surprise, but today 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 give employees at least one day off per week, but allows them some flexibility in arranging the leave. It allows the company to provide four days of leave every four weeks.

What does this mean? If the worker’s release is regulated in a certain way, first he is given a four-day rest period, then a long working period, and then another four-day rest, the law technically allows the extension of the interim working period by 48 days. . Japan Times He notes that unions and managers could also agree on what is known as “Treaty 36,” which in practice protects workers from working even on holidays.

Why do they want to change? The Japanese Government does not only have the approach of the Ministry of Health group. It also has data showing how consecutive 14-day work periods undermine operators’ stability. According to one Executive-led study, these phases without breaks create higher levels of stress than phases associated with accumulating more than 120 hours of overtime in a single month. They also have another very important consequence: They contribute to the psychological stress and disorders that lead to workers’ compensation.

And the numbers on this topic are significant. Last year, 1,023 compensation claims were recorded for mental disorders and heart diseases due to stress at work. The data stands out for a few reasons. Its volume and especially its trend. Although approved petitions have decreased over the years, they have increased again. There will be around a thousand applications in 2023, 220 more than the previous year.

Is it a new measure? This is not Japan’s first move to improve conditions for workers. One of his focuses is setting limits on overtime in both annual and monthly calculations. For example, truck drivers and doctors working in hospitals have had to abide by certain well-defined limits over the past few months. The limit is set at 960 hours per year. For construction workers, this is slightly lower; It is determined as 720 overtime hours per year.

Japan’s attempts to regulate overtime date back to 2019, when a labor system reform law came into effect, but some sectors facing shortages of skilled personnel were exempt from the new restrictions for five years. So far. For example, government studies show that a large percentage of doctors currently exceed the established limit.

Although the country does not theoretically top the OECD and World Economic Forum lists for average number of hours worked, overwork is a major problem in Japan. There is even a word that means dying of exhaustion: karoshi. In 2015 the Government cited just over 2,300 victims. The latest data from Statista shows that the number of people committing suicide due to work problems is approaching the 3,000 mark.

Image | Beth Macdonald (Unsplash) and Erica Leong (Unsplash)

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