Symposium shows excessive workload on medical and transport workers

Hospital and mass transit workers at a symposium in Tokyo revealed that their worsening working conditions are threatening the safety and lives of patients and passengers.

The symposium entitled, "Life" was organized by the Japan Federation of Flight Crew Unions and the Liaison Council of Medical Workers Unions to make the reality of their workplaces known to the public. About 800 people took part in it.

In pursuit of "increased competitiveness and efficiency," airline companies have reduced the number of staff necessary for a flight. It is common for a pilot to fly 15 hours without a break. Japan Airlines (JAL) had 11 on-the-job deaths in the last 5 years, and All Nippon Airways (ANA) had seven such deaths in the last one and half years. The JAL Pacific route is notorious with two crew members flying straight through without reliefs. On foreign airlines, it is a requirement for a flight over 8 hours to take relief breaks aboard.

At Keio Teito Electric Railway, a major railway and bus company in Tokyo, a bus driver died after working 14 to 15 hours a day for 17 days. The prevailing long working hours arose mainly from the 1988 introduction of a "flexible" work schedule system which is a de facto choice between wage cuts and working many extra hours outside standards. Keio Railway has a plan to transfer drivers to a spin-off to reduce the payment of their wages.

A nurse panelist reported that Japanese hospitals have one nurses for 100 beds, which is only 25 to 50 percent of those in western countries. Last year's medical trade union survey showed that 80 percent of nurses experience "chronic fatigue." She said the work for nurses range from operating state-of-the-art medical equipment to giving meals to patients. Behind the many reported medical accidents lie such demanding working conditions for nurses, she said.

A lawyer from the plaintiffs bench on karoshi (death from overwork) said that the situation now is serious because long and irregular working hours and midnight work have increased to cover almost all jobs, and he stressed the role for trade unions to play on this question. (end)