New Labor Law May Be Life-Threatening

We see safety laws and regulations that protect workers’ lives, but now reports say a new labor law in Japan may be a threat to workers—who may work themselves to death!

A Yahoo!News report via AFP says that the new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet have approved a bill that would exempt some white-collar workers earning over $88,000 per year (U.S.) from current work-hour rules, which limit workers to 12-hour continuous hours per day.

The aim of the rule is to reward workers for productivity and achievements, rather than only for hours worked. Sponsors say the exemption would allow workers more flexibility in hours spent on the job.

Critics of the measure are concerned that unregulating this group, which includes senior sales professionals and managers, will exacerbate a condition unique to Japanese workers called “karoshi,” or “occupational sudden death.”

Japanese employees often feel compelled to work many more hours in the office than their counterparts in other major economies, often off the clock. According to the article, almost a quarter (22.3 percent) of Japanese employees work over 50 hours per week, compared with 11.3 percent in the United States. Some employees log hundreds of hours of overtime per month!

Employees may not take time to eat or exercise, log only 2 or 3 hours of sleep, maintain high levels of stress, and constantly pump adrenaline and cortisol until they collapse with a heart attack or stroke—or commit suicide.

Of course, verifying work as a cause of death is difficult, but the Japanese Labor Standards Office has been keeping track of suspected cases and released figures that in 2013, 196 deaths and suicides were linked to excessive working hours.

Critics also charge that the law would override current agreements between employers and employees regarding overtime payments.

The AFP says the new law would affect only about 4 percent of Japanese workers. However, Wikipedia says some employers are tackling the issue themselves by running announcements after 7 pm that employees should head home to eat and sleep, while others have initiated “no overtime days.”