Hitachi workers win overtime pay

Workers of a major multinational electronics maker has succeeded in
getting the company to pay for their unpaid overtime work.

Akahata of September 24 reported that about 600 workers of Hitachi's
IT-related office in Aichi Prefecture are believed to have been paid.

The report said this is an important achievement in workers' struggles
using a government circular which called for the elimination of unpaid
overtime work. The circular was issued by the Health, Welfare and Labor
Ministry to the prefectural Labor Bureau directors in April.

In Hitachi's IT-related office in Aichi, workers in development and
designing sections in particular were obliged to work till late night. Three
workers in their 20s died, and among them was a worker who killed himself
while he was working overtime.

Hitachi has introduced a discretionary work schedule system called
"e-work," in which overtime will only be paid up to 30 hours a month so that
many workers are obliged to take up extra overtime work without pay.

Some workers made frequent visits to the Labor Standards Inspection
Office and the company union calling on them to do something to eliminate
unpaid overtime work. (end)