Automaker Suzuki pays 70 million yen in unpaid overtime

Automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation has paid its workers 70 million yen in back pay for overtime work for the period between November 2002 and January 2003. This was made possible by a complaint against the company that the Japanese Communist Party Suzuki Branch had made with the Labor Standards Inspections Office.

In March , JCP member of the House of Councilors Fudesaka Hideyo used his question time at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting to blame the car maker for doctoring the records of overtime work. Last January, Suzuki changed its attendance book system from handwritten to computerized data, and then deleted date and time data to reduce overwork hours.

The JCP-Suzuki Branch at the end of May requested the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to instruct Suzuki not to fail to pay workers for their overtime work.

Ota Yasuhisa, member of the JCP-Suzuki Branch, welcomed the back pay as a big victory. "The company has told us to erase e-mails employees sent to their families because they could be used to prove their late night overtime work. The JCP branch is going to take this up as the next step to root out Suzuki's unpaid overtime work," Ota stated. (end)