Have you ever heard that somebody had work until they die. I can’t imagine how hard he had worked. Well according to the news, he had worked more than 106 hours overtime per month. I have an experienced when I was started my job in the factory, I still remember I had tried to do overtime about 100 hours that month. You know how it feel? I was very tired. I work until 12 am every day including saturday & sunday. Since then, I did want to overtime more than 7 pm and even on saturday and sunday. I agree that I would get higher income & good reputation from our bosses. But we also have right to get rest.

Toyota employee ‘worked to death’ for overtime

December 1, 2007

A Toyota employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours’ overtime in one month, a judge ruled on Friday to reverse a ministry’s earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow.

The Toyota Labour Standards Inspection office, a local branch of Japan’s labour ministry, refused to pay the widow the usual compensation for a spouse’s work-related death. The company claimed he had logged only 45 hours’ overtime in the month before he died, Japanese media reported.

But the court ruled that the employee had worked far more than that, said Yomiuri Online, a Japanese news website

. The Nagoya District Court in central Japan said the ruling overturned the labour ministry’s decision.

“We want to think how to respond to this ruling by discussing it with relevant agencies,” an official at the Toyota Labour Standards Inspection Office told Reuters.

The man, who was working at a Toyota factory in central Japan, died of irregular heartbeat in February 2002 after passing out in the factory around 4am.

“(The employee) worked for extremely long hours and the relationship between his work and death is strong,” Yomiuri Online quoted Judge Toshiro Tamiya as saying.

315 compensation requests

Overworking is a serious issue in Japan, where an average worker uses less than 50 percent of paid holidays, according to government data.

In fiscal year 2005-2006, the labour ministry received 315 requests for compensation from the bereaved families of workers who died of strokes and other illnesses seen as work-related.

Toyota said it would further improve the management of its employees’ health. – Reuters