Japan to Toughen Control of Govt Worker Overtime

July 11, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's National Personnel Authority will introduce stronger restrictions on overtime hours of national public servants to promote work style reform, informed sources have said.

The government agency is considering revising its rules governing national public servants in order to put stronger limits on their overtime. Many officials work long hours to handle parliamentary affairs and other tasks.

Details will be included in its recommendations on salaries for central government employees to be made in August.

Last month, the Diet, the country's parliament, enacted work style reform legislation for sweeping labor regulation revisions, including tougher overtime limits.

The personnel authority's guidelines drawn up in 2009 limits national civil servants' overtime hours to 360 hours per year.

At departments in exceptional circumstances such as those handling parliamentary affairs and budget negotiations, overtime hours of up to 720 hours per year are allowed.

The personnel authority will decide whether to set overtime caps in its rules, which are more powerful than its guidelines.

The agency will also consider granting exceptions in busy periods, including the times of natural disasters, as well as introducing monthly overtime caps like those for private-sector workers stipulated in the labor standards law.

In its recommendations on personnel management in 2017, the authority said efforts to reduce and streamline work are needed to redress national civil servants' long working hours. Jiji Press