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Labor minister says government wonft appeal ruling on nursefs death from overwork in Osaka

 

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare will not appeal a court decision that the cause of the death of a nurse at a government-run hospital in Osaka was work-related, caused by an excessively heavy workload and long working hours.

 

Labor Minister Masuzoe Yoichi stated this in reply to Japanese Communist Party Koike Akira at a House of Councilors Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee meeting on November 13.

 

Murakami Yuko was a nurse of the National Cardiovascular Center, one of Japanfs most-advanced specialized medical institutions. She died of a stroke in 2001 at the age of 25 apparently as a result of an excessive workload. She worked 80 hours of overtime a month.

 

Koike said, gThe ministry must take measures to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy.h

 

Masuzoe answered, gWe will conduct a survey of current working conditions in national hospitals and take steps to improve them.h

 

After the committee meeting, Murakami Yukofs mother, who was listening to Koike and Masuzoe in the public gallery, said, gTears came into my eyes when I heard the words eno appeal.f I hope better working conditions will be established so that all medical workers can work in good health and that my daughterfs death was not in vain.h

 

After Yukofs death, her parents applied for work-related compensation for her death, but the labor ministry refused to recognize her death as work-related.

 

Later, the Osaka District Court and the subsequent Osaka High Court both judged her death as work-related.

 

Members from the Osaka branch of the Japan Federation of Medical Workersf Unions (Iroren) supported Yukofs parents in the court struggle. JCP Dietmembers also took up the issue and called on the government to not appeal the case to an upper court.                                                              - Akahata, November 14, 2008

 



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