Jobs for life

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Not a good feeling to take from 2007.Hope people realize the work life choice. I hope also the economy model also changes to push away from this culture. I have always felt during my interactions in Japan that they were pushing it. Sad to see this coming to surface. Yes, India is a bit below, but fast catching up like Japan. Just heard from my brother that his classmate whom he tried to trace after 12 years, died due to work stress etc after becoming a CEO in a mid size company. (Late 30s).

Take care. Karthik. Death by overwork in Japan

Jobs for life

Dec 19th 2007 | TOKYOFrom The Economist print editionJapanese employees are working themselves to death

HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi,

"death by overwork". Since this was legally recognised as a cause of

death in the 1980s, the number of cases submitted to the government for

the designation has soared; so has the number of court cases that

result when the government refuses an application. In 1988 only about

4% of applications were successful. By 2005 that share had risen to

40%. If a death is judged karoshi, surviving family members

may receive compensation of around $20,000 a year from the government

and sometimes up to $1m from the company in damages. For deaths not

designated karoshi the family gets next to nothing.

Now a recent court ruling has put companies under pressure to change

their ways. On November 30th the Nagoya District Court accepted Hiroko

Uchino's claim that her husband, Kenichi, a third-generation Toyota

employee, was a victim of karoshi when he died in 2002 at the

age of 30. He collapsed at 4am at work, having put in more than 80

hours of overtime each month for six months before his death. "The

moment when I am happiest is when I can sleep," Mr Uchino told his wife

the week of his death. He left two children, aged one and three.

As a manager of quality control, Mr Uchino was constantly training

workers, attending meetings and writing reports when not on the

production line. Toyota treated almost all that time as voluntary and

unpaid. So did the Toyota Labour Standards Inspection Office, part of

the labour ministry. But the court ruled that the long hours were an

integral part of his job. On December 14th the government decided not

to appeal against the verdict.

The ruling is important because it may increase the pressure on

companies to treat "free overtime" (work that an employee is obliged to

perform but not paid for) as paid work. That would send shockwaves

through corporate Japan, where long, long hours are the norm.

Official figures say that the Japanese work about 1,780 hours a

year, slightly less than Americans (1,800 hours a year), though more

than Germans (1,440). But the statistics are misleading because they do

not count "free overtime". Other tallies show that one in three men

aged 30 to 40 works over 60 hours a week. Half say they get no

overtime. Factory workers arrive early and stay late, without pay.

Training at weekends may be uncompensated.

During the past 20 years of economic doldrums, many companies have

replaced full-time workers with part-time ones. Regular staff who

remain benefit from lifetime employment but feel obliged to work extra

hours lest their positions be made temporary. Cultural factors

reinforce these trends. Hard work is respected as the cornerstone of

Japan's post-war economic miracle. The value of self-sacrifice puts the

benefit of the group above that of the individual.

Toyota, which is challenging GM as the

world's largest carmaker, is often praised for the efficiency and

flexibility of its workforce. Ms Uchino has a different view. "It is

because so many people work free overtime that Toyota reaps profits,"

she says. "I hope some of those profits can be brought back to help the

employees and their families. That would make Toyota a true global

leader." The company is promising to prevent karoshi in future. -- B Karthik and Lalitha Karthik

Diamond District.Bangalore, India.Cell:- +91 98440 26214.Take it Easy and Take care. Live Consciously.MY BLOG: www.Karthikkaraikudy.blogspot.com

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