Japanese restaurant fined for overworked employee who suicided

By: Together Abroad 06-11-2014 11:52 AM
Categories: ** HR daily news,

The Tokyo District Court ordered a restaurant chain and two of its personnel to pay more than half a million dollars in damages to the family of an employee who killed himself due to overwork in November 2010. The man was forced to work nearly 200 hours overtime in a month.

The President of Sun Challenge, a Tokyo-based steak house chain and another were found culpable in failing to stop the employee from working excessive hours, reported AFP.

According to a Kyodo News report, the presiding judge, Akira Yamada stated the “psychological load of prolonged work and power harassment caused his mental disorder.”

The company and its two officials were ordered to pay a total of 58 million yen (US$510,000), to the parents of the unidentified employee.

The employee began working for Sun Challenge in 2007 and was appointed restaurant manager in July 2010. He had worked an average of 190 hours overtime every month and had taken only two days in the seven months before hanging himself. The employee had also been physically and verbally abused by his supervisor, reported AFP.

Japan’s working culture of long hours and unpaid overtime has been often criticised as a leading cause of mental and physical illness among employees. The country also has the term “Karoshi”, which means “death by overwork”, that was entered into its lexicon years ago due to an increase in work-related suicides and stress-related issues.

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