By HIROKI HASHIMOTO/ Staff Writer
March 9, 2022 at 18:35 JST
The building housing Accenture Japan Ltd.’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on March 8 (Hiroki Hashimoto)
The Tokyo Labor Bureau on March 8 sent papers on Accenture Japan Ltd. and its senior manager to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on allegations of violating the Labor Standards Law.
The labor authority suspects the foreign-affiliated consulting firm made an employee work overtime past the legal limit last year.
According to the labor bureau, the software engineer who works at the headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward was forced to work as much as 143 hours and 48 minutes of overtime between Jan. 3 and 30 in 2021, exceeding the legal limit of 40 hours a week.
Accenture does not have any labor unions. But an employee representative made a labor-management agreement with the firm under Article 36 of the labor law.
The Article 36 agreement permits a certain amount of overtime, but also puts a cap on the amount.
But the Tokyo Labor Bureau said their agreement was invalid due to a procedural inadequacy, among other reasons.
The labor bureau’s special task force to eradicate overwork believed multiple employees worked illegal overtime and investigated the case.
The firm had about 18,000 employees as of last December. Most worked at the headquarters, a public relations representative said.
“We sincerely accept the investigation results and will make efforts to reform our working practices and environment by complying with relevant laws and regulations,” the representative said.
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