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Toei Promises Work Practice Changes After Labor Standards Recommendation

The legal portal site Bengo4.com reported last week that the Central Labor Relations Committee's Labor Standards Inspection Office recommended corrective action to Japanese media company Toei in response to the company's alleged practice of working employees beyond legal limits and failing to provide proper overtime pay to employees.

Toei stated in response that it has already decided to take steps on improving its policies based on the recommendation, and acknowledged it as "fair."

A female Toei assistant producer, along with the Sōgo Support Union labor union, announced the committee's recommendation in a press conference last Thursday. The woman sought the assistance of Sōgo Support Union in reporting and filing a lawsuit against Toei for the company's work practices last November. She wrote an announcement giving specific examples of Toei's practices, including the "fixed overtime" system, which determined that she would receive the same salary regardless of the amount of overtime she worked, with no other compensation. The assistant producer also claimed that work hours in the company would regularly exceed 13 hours a day.

The assistant producer also alleged in that announcement that she was sexually harassed, claiming that a freelance employee touched her inappropriately. In a separate incident, a freelance assistant director supposedly gave her unreasonable orders, such as staring at her while they were alone in a "camera test," and ordering her to sit with him. In both incidents, when she reported the behavior, she claimed she received no assistance from Toei staff.

Source: Bengo4.com via The Tokusatsu Network