…Managers called TV news confab and bowed in apology at employee’s deeply regrettable actions
Japan’s commitment to addressing its dismal record on work-life balance has been called into question after a civil servant was punished for “habitually” slipping away from his desk a few minutes early to buy lunch.
The 64-year-old, an employee of the waterworks bureau in the western city of Kobe, was fined and reprimanded after he was found to have left his desk just three minutes before the start of his designated lunch break on 26 occasions over a seven-month period.
Senior officials at the bureau then called a televised news conference, where they described the man’s conduct as “deeply regrettable” and bowed in apology.
A spokesman for the bureau told AFP: “The lunch break is from noon to 1pm. He left his desk before the break.”
The worker had violated a public service law requiring officials to “concentrate on their jobs”, according to the bureau.
Local media reported the incident soon after MPs passed a law intended to address Japan’s punishingly long working hours.
Last month, the lower house passed a bill that caps overtime at 100 hours a month in response to a rise in the number of employees dying from karoshi, or death from overwork.
The government was forced to act following a public outcry over the death of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old employee of the advertising giant Dentsu, who killed herself in 2015 after being forced to work more than 100 hours overtime a month, including at weekends.
Social media users leaped to the Kobe official’s defence, with one Twitter user pointing out that, on average, he had left his desk early just once a week.
"It’s sheer madness. It’s crazy. What about leaving your desk to smoke?" said another Twitter user.
"Is this a bad joke? Does this mean we cannot even go to the bathroom?" said another.
Another said: “What about all the politicians who sleep in parliament? They ought to be fired, then.”
"We must think again" about what are "the appropriate measures to take." He adds, however, that the bureau is "bound to the public servant duty to spend the working hours for our duty."
(In related news, a Japanese reporter died at 23 after working almost nonstop for a month.)
Culled from theguardian.co.uk
