This is an important bill to secure diverse employment patterns and maintain the vitality of society. Level-headed discussion on the bill at the Diet -- based on accurate and objective information -- is essential.
With regard to the bill related to work style reforms, which the government plans to submit to the Diet during the ongoing regular session, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has admitted to its inappropriate use of data from a fact-finding survey conducted in fiscal 2013 on work hours.
On the basis of these data, the government had said the daily average work hours of employees under the discretionary work system stood at 9 hours and 16 minutes, about 20 minutes less than those of ordinary employees. But for the survey, ordinary workers were questioned about how long they worked on the day when they did their longest overtime during the surveyed month, thus making it unreasonable to compare their work hours with those of employees under the discretionary work system.
Opposition parties have been stepping up their attacks on the government, saying this is "sheer fabrication."
The labor ministry has made excuses, saying that the inappropriate comparison stemmed from the fact that officials other than those in charge of the survey compared the data. Former Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki had also quoted this data at the Diet. With the checking system within the ministry not working, it was an overly careless response.
The ministry must make efforts to thoroughly identify the cause of the blunder and to prevent a recurrence.
The discretionary work system is one under which employees are deemed to have worked for a pre-fixed amount of time. It enables white-collar employees who perform highly specialized work to decide on their work hours on their own initiative.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting on Jan. 29 that "there is also a survey with data indicating that the work hours under the discretionary work system are shorter than those of ordinary employees." He withdrew his remark on Feb. 14. The prime minister and Cabinet members should take the utmost care in making replies at the Diet.
Don't judge only by hours
With the legislation related to work style reforms, the government plans to expand the list of employees subject to the discretionary work system. But in the light of the latest bungle, it has begun coordinating views to put off the date of enforcement by one year to April 2020. Now that the basis for discussion has been shaken, the postponement is seen as inevitable.
Primarily, whether this system is right or wrong should not be judged solely by the relative length of work hours compared with those of ordinary employees.
An employee's consent is necessary to apply the decided working hours. Employers, for their part, must ascertain employees' working conditions and take measures to preserve their health.
Opposition parties' labeling the discretionary work system as one that makes employees work at the discretion of employers for fixed pay and criticizing the system is too one-sided a view.
Some have also pointed to abuse of the system by management. It is important to deepen relevant discussion about the system at the Diet regarding its proper application -- with the nature of the system taken into account -- as well as how employees' well-being should be maintained.
In the legislation, the government plans to incorporate restrictions on the upper limit of overtime work and the promotion of "equal pay for equal work," aiming to have the legislation lead to flexible work styles in keeping with the diversifying lifestyles of the public.
Discussions on the bill at the Diet must not become a repetition of those related to security-related legislation, where opposition parties made extreme arguments from beginning to end and there was little substantive discussion.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 22, 2018)
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