Nurses and care workers talk about harsh working conditions

Japan Press Weekly

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Nurses and care workers talk about harsh working conditions

About 400 nurses and care workers took part in a national meeting to exchange accounts of their working situations on February 13 and 14 in Osaka City.

As nurses and care workers have more opportunities to work together in places like elderly people’s homes and nursing facilities, the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) for the first time organized this type of event.

Nakano Chikako, Iroren Central Executive Committee member, pointed out in her keynote speech that nurses and care workers have similar working issues as increasing numbers of them give up their careers due to long working hours and low wages.

She called for their joint efforts to create workplaces where they can continue to work by improving their working conditions and provide themselves with training and education opportunities in order to develop their skills and fulfill their social roles.

Participants continued their discussion on the second day by holding eight workshops on different themes. At a workshop focusing on shift-work systems, both nurses and care workers raised questions about the two-shift system introduced at many workplaces. Their reports revealed that 12 to 16-hour work shifts have caused health issues among them and have led to a lowering in the quality of services they can provide to their patients.

Participants stated, “Many of our colleagues in their twenties are suffering from extreme weight loss, and their periods have stopped. After going home from work, they cannot go to sleep without taking sleeping pills,” and “We make many minor mistakes around five o’clock in the morning, the time when we feel most exhausted.”

- Akahata, February 13 & 14, 2010