Photo/Illutration A male employee of a leading manufacturer teleworks at his home in Hyogo Prefecture in April. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Most employees who worked overtime from home due to the COVID-19 health crisis did not report their extra hours or had their overtime pay requests rejected, according to a labor organization’s survey.

Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, contacted 1,000 company employees and part-time workers nationwide who began remote work in April or later. The survey was conducted in early June.

According to the poll, 51.5 percent of respondents said that, on some days, they had to put in longer hours teleworking than they worked at their workplace.

The survey results showed 38.1 percent worked overtime or worked on a day off, making them eligible for overtime pay.

Of these people, however, 65.1 percent said they did not report extra hours to their employer, while 56.4 percent said their requests for overtime pay were denied on some occasions.

As a reason for not reporting their overtime work, 26.6 percent cited a workplace atmosphere that discouraged it.

Some workers, making up 11.7 percent of respondents, said their boss even told them not to report their overtime.

Akira Nidaira, chief of Rengo’s Department of General Planning, stressed that companies need to set rules for labor management to deal with the rise in remote work.

“The survey revealed that a large number of employers were not well equipped to keep tabs on workers’ work hours,” he said. “If they want to promote working from home, they should improve the labor management system and set rules for that kind of work style.”

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