Toyota will boost overtime pay to their assembly line workers for their voluntary efforts to improve production quality, the company said yesterday, in the latest effort in Japan to quell growing criticism about a workaholic corporate culture.
The decision follows a court ruling that found a Toyota worker, who collapsed at a plant, had died of overwork, or karoshi, Such rulings are surprisingly common in Japan and allow the family of the deceased to collect government compensation for work-related deaths.
Japanese tend to work long hours because many companies demand worker loyalty in exchange for relative job stability. Workers’ putting in free overtime is so common a widely recognized phrase describes the practice, saabisu zangyo, or “service overtime.” But public criticism about free overtime has been growing.
Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s No. 1 automaker, has a sterling reputation for innovative production methods, called kaizen, that rely on ideas from their workers to cut costs and raise on-the-job efficiency.
Toyota auto workers routinely take part in voluntary meetings called “QC Circle,” short for quality control circle, that focus on improving product quality and manufacturing methods.
Starting next month, Toyota will more fully compensate workers for such meetings, which are outside their shift hours, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said in Tokyo.
The Asahi Shimbun said previous QC overtime pay had been limited to two hours a month.
The Nagoya District Court ruled in November that a 30-year-old Toyota auto worker had died of overwork, sometimes doing more than 100 hours of overtime a month, some of that in QC Circle work, working weekends and holidays, Japanese media reports said.
The ruling found that QC Circle work should be counted as overtime, the reports said.
Also see: Lowering the tempo
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
RSS