An instance of karoshi — Japanese for sudden death from overwork — was ruled by Taipei City Government’s Bureau of Labor Insurance in a case last year in which a woman was frequently ordered via an instant-messaging app to work overtime, media have reported.
Family members of the deceased 40-year-old, who worked in a public relations company, filed a complaint with Huang Yi-ling (黃怡翎), chief executive of labor rights group Taiwan OSH Link, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on Friday, quoting the family members as saying that the woman died from tasks frequently assigned to her through WhatsApp at midnight.
Late last year, the woman suddenly fainted outside her office and fell into a coma, Huang was quoted in the report as saying, adding that a formal diagnosis showed she had suffered a stroke. She died one month later.
Although her employers initially refused responsibility in the woman’s death, they failed to present her attendance records to back their claim, Huang said.
In the report, the bureau ruled in her favor after her family presented a WhatsApp conversation log retrieved from her cellphone, which contained a barrage of messages from her boss after 10pm, demanding certain tasks, she said.
In the report, the bureau confirmed on Thursday that it determined the case a work-related death due to work-induced cerebrovascular and cardiac disease.
The bureau declined to elaborate, except to say that it had ruled the company should compensate the deceased’s family with NT$1.97 million (US$65,700), the report said.
Career magazine chief editor Tsang Sheng-yuan (臧聲遠) was quoted by the report as saying that employees at foreign enterprises which engage in overseas communication; public relations companies or media outlets that gather first-hand information; advertisement agencies that engage in creative thinking; and IT companies that are in charge of production lines may easily fall victim to overworking due to the high level of accessibility via instant messaging apps.
Ministry of Labor officials were also quoted in the report as saying that the ministry has recently received inquiries from the public asking whether “working overtime” counts as receiving Line or WhatsApp messages from their superiors after office hours, assigning them new tasks.
According to the officials, any additional work assigned to workers outside their shifts is deemed working overtime, regardless of the method through which the work is assigned.
Companies that assign tasks to employees during their personal time are obligated to pay them overtime and must heed the daily limit on the number of extra working hours as stipulated by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Any violations risk a fine of between NT$20,000 and NT$300,000, ministry officials were quoted in the report as saying.
Cheng Chi-yueh (程之約), a professor of National Chengchi University’s Institute of Labor Research, said in the report that instant-messaging apps, which have provided employers with a convenient way to “sneak” in more tasks “unrecorded,” have contributed to the problem.
He added that the ministry should amend existing laws to more effectively regulate working hours.
Meanwhile, National Taiwan University Hospital cardiologist Tzung-Dau Wang (王宗道) said that the risk of getting a stroke greatly increases under extreme fatigue, since the body is pushing its limits, adding that as a result, the parasympathetic nervous system becomes overexcited, raising a person’s blood pressure and causing irregular heartbeat.
The ministry said that employers should retain a record of their employees’ attendance and gain their consent whenever they ask them to work overtime.
It said that the existing laws are sufficient to prevent such unfortunate incidents from recurring.
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