VOA慢速英語：日本提出加班時間限制打擊過勞死

pan Proposes Overtime Limit to Fight ‘Death from Overwork’

日本提出加班時間限制打擊過勞死

Japan's government has proposed new limits on the amount of overtime employees can work.

日本政府對員工加班時間提出了新的限制。

The restrictions would cap overtime to 100 hours per month and 720 hours per year. The plan is supported by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the reforms are expected to eventually be approved by parliament.

該規(guī)定將加班時間限定為每月100小時和每年720小時。該方案得到了首相安倍晉三的支持，改革預(yù)計最終將由議會批準。

The government has said the overtime limits aim to fight what the Japanese call "karoshi," or death from overwork.

日本政府表示，限制加班時間是為了打擊日本人所說的過勞死。

Japan's business culture has a long history of demanding that employees work many hours of overtime. An online survey last year also found that most Japanese workers only take about half the number of vacation days they are given.

日本企業(yè)文化長期要求員工長時間加班。去年的一項調(diào)查還發(fā)現(xiàn)，大多數(shù)日本員工只休了自己一半左右的假期天數(shù)。

The dangers of long working hours were highlighted by the 2015 death of an employee at Japanese advertising company Dentsu. The 24-year-old female employee committed suicide after complaining to family about the long hours she had to work.

2015年日本電通廣告公司一名員工的死亡凸顯了長時間工作的危險性。這名24歲的女雇員向家人抱怨自己需要長時間工作后自殺身亡。

Public outrage over the woman's death led to the resignation of Dentsu's CEO last January. The company's new chief has pledged to obey all labor laws and carry out reforms to protect the health and safety of employees.

公眾對該女子死亡的憤怒導(dǎo)致電通公司CEO于去年一月份辭職。該公司新任首席執(zhí)行官承諾遵守各項勞動法律并進行改革以保護員工的健康和安全。

Michael Cucek is with Temple University's Japan Campus. He says efforts by the Japanese government to improve conditions for workers are seen as a good thing. However, he and some Japanese activist groups believe the proposed limits are too high to truly make life better for employees.

邁克爾·庫賽克(Michael Cucek)就職于天普大學(xué)日本分校。他說，日本政府改善員工條件的努力是一件好事情。然而他和一些日本活動家組織認為，日本政府提出的加班時間限制太高，無法真正改善員工生活。

"The number is absurd - that in a single month, one can have 100 hours of overtime, is simply a ridiculous number."

他說，“這個數(shù)字是荒謬的，在一個月加班100個小時，這是個荒謬的數(shù)字。”

A government report said last year that about one in five Japanese companies have employees who work such long hours that they are at serious risk of death.

去年有一份政府報告聲稱，大約20%的日本公司有員工長時間加班，面臨嚴重的死亡風險。

The report found that nearly 23 percent of companies had some employees working over 80 hours of overtime a month. Medical officials have noted a greater possibility of death from work among people working at least 80 overtime hours per month.

這份報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，近23%的公司有一些員工每月加班超過80個小時。醫(yī)務(wù)人員指出，每月加班至少80個小時的人員死亡的可能性更大。

The survey also showed that about 21 percent of Japanese employees work an average of 49 or more hours each week. That number compares to 16 percent of American, 13 percent of British and 10 percent of French employees.

調(diào)查還顯示，大約21%的日本員工每周平均工作時間不低于49小時。相比之下，該比例在美國為16%，英國為13%，法國為10%。

Cucek says the woman who killed herself while working at Dentsu is an example of how work isolates many Japanese workers.

庫賽克表示，這名在電通公司上班的自殺女性是一個例子，說明了工作如何孤立了許多日本員工。

"She was living not at home, but in a corporate dormitory. So there was never anybody to talk to. Never any way of her breaking out of the environment where ‘you must work, you must work, you must work,' was being pressed upon her."

“她不住在家里，而是住在公司的宿舍。所有她沒有人可以交談，也沒有辦法擺脫這種壓在她身上的‘你必須工作，你必須工作，你必須工作’的環(huán)境。”

He said he hopes new overtime rules will send a clear message to Japanese companies that they can no longer demand an environment leading to employee health problems and death.

他說，他希望新的加班規(guī)定能夠向日本公司發(fā)出明確信號，他們不能再要求一種導(dǎo)致員工健康問題和死亡的環(huán)境。

I'm Alice Bryant.

艾麗絲·布萊恩特報道。