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▼ 100 Officials Set to be Added to Labor Inspection Offices
- Category:Event
The government intends to add 100 labor standards inspectors — professional staff at the labor standards inspection offices — in the next fiscal year to cope with a chronic shortage of personnel who survey corporations when it aims to introduce regulations and penalties to limit overtime work, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The government hopes to correct the practice of long working hours by enhancing its supervisory system through this largest-ever addition of inspectors.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to include related expenses in the budgetary request for fiscal 2018. Labor standards inspectors make on-site inspections of businesses and then issue advisories for correction and give guidance for improvement. They also have judicial and police powers to arrest offenders and send them to prosecutors.
As of fiscal 2016, there were 3,241 inspectors stationed at 321 offices nationwide. However, the number of inspectors assigned per 10,000 workers is 0.62 — lower than other developed countries in Europe, with 1.89 in Germany and 0.93 in Britain.
Among 4.28 million businesses subject to guidance and supervision, inspection offices made inspections at about 160,000 companies in 2015, meaning its execution rate has remained around 3.7 percent.
In response to the work-related suicide of a newly recruited Dentsu Inc. employee, the government added 50 labor standards inspectors in fiscal 2017, but the labor oversight shortage has yet to be resolved.
Meanwhile, the government aims to introduce overtime regulations with penalties for violations from fiscal 2019 as part of its “work style reform.”
The regulations will stipulate the upper limit for overtime should be “45 hours per month and 360 hours per year,” in principle, and “within 720 hours per year (60 hours per month, on average)” even when labor and management conclude a special overtime work agreement.
The government plans to present a bill to revise the Labor Standards Law that includes the regulations at an extraordinary Diet session in autumn.
To ensure the effectiveness of the regulations, it is an urgent task to reinforce the offices’ supervisory function.
In June, the Labor Policy Council, the labor minister’s advisory panel, submitted a proposal to then labor minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki noting “it is appropriate to work to consolidate the system of labor standards inspection agencies,” such as by adding inspectors.
The government plans to continue boosting the number of inspectors. It also is considering entrusting initial inspection work to the private sector with the aim of reducing inspectors’ burdens.
It is making arrangements to entrust the initial inspection work, including the distribution of survey papers to companies and collecting them, to certified social insurance labor consultants and others who are chosen based on a bid.Speech
The government hopes to correct the practice of long working hours by enhancing its supervisory system through this largest-ever addition of inspectors.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to include related expenses in the budgetary request for fiscal 2018. Labor standards inspectors make on-site inspections of businesses and then issue advisories for correction and give guidance for improvement. They also have judicial and police powers to arrest offenders and send them to prosecutors.
As of fiscal 2016, there were 3,241 inspectors stationed at 321 offices nationwide. However, the number of inspectors assigned per 10,000 workers is 0.62 — lower than other developed countries in Europe, with 1.89 in Germany and 0.93 in Britain.
Among 4.28 million businesses subject to guidance and supervision, inspection offices made inspections at about 160,000 companies in 2015, meaning its execution rate has remained around 3.7 percent.
In response to the work-related suicide of a newly recruited Dentsu Inc. employee, the government added 50 labor standards inspectors in fiscal 2017, but the labor oversight shortage has yet to be resolved.
Meanwhile, the government aims to introduce overtime regulations with penalties for violations from fiscal 2019 as part of its “work style reform.”
The regulations will stipulate the upper limit for overtime should be “45 hours per month and 360 hours per year,” in principle, and “within 720 hours per year (60 hours per month, on average)” even when labor and management conclude a special overtime work agreement.
The government plans to present a bill to revise the Labor Standards Law that includes the regulations at an extraordinary Diet session in autumn.
To ensure the effectiveness of the regulations, it is an urgent task to reinforce the offices’ supervisory function.
In June, the Labor Policy Council, the labor minister’s advisory panel, submitted a proposal to then labor minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki noting “it is appropriate to work to consolidate the system of labor standards inspection agencies,” such as by adding inspectors.
The government plans to continue boosting the number of inspectors. It also is considering entrusting initial inspection work to the private sector with the aim of reducing inspectors’ burdens.
It is making arrangements to entrust the initial inspection work, including the distribution of survey papers to companies and collecting them, to certified social insurance labor consultants and others who are chosen based on a bid.Speech
- August 23, 2017
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