Osaka's firms pay 400-million yen for overtime in back pay

In Osaka Prefecture, 138 companies followed the Labor Standards Inspection Office instructions and paid 3,229 workers about 410-million yen (about 3.3 million dollars) for overtime work in back pay for the first nine months this year.

This significant result is due to the Japanese Communist Party and union workers' persevering efforts to eliminate unpaid overtime work.

According to the Osaka Labor Bureau, unpaid overtime work is prevalent in clerical workplaces at factories, hotels, restaurants, and retailers.

Hattori Shin'ichiro, vice-president of the All Osaka Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions, affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroen), said, "We've denounced the failure to pay for overtime work as well as forced overtime work without allowance. Such labor practices have forced more people out of work. We've demanded that the Osaka Labor Bureau take steps to have employers end such unfair practices. The action by Osaka's labor standards inspection offices are commendable." (end)