Photo/Illutration A government building housing offices of the labor ministry in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

KYOTO—Labor authorities, using new guidelines on working conditions, reversed an earlier ruling and awarded redress to the bereaved family of a Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. employee who died in 2015.

The Labor Standards Inspection Office for lower Kyoto delivered the new ruling in June, a lawyer representing the family said.

The employee did maintenance work on vehicles at the Kyoto branch of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus.

In July 2015, he was hospitalized after complaining about feeling ill during work. He died later that day of acute heart failure at the age of 38.

He had put in 77 hours of overtime on average per month during the two months before his death.

Labor officials initially dismissed the bereaved family’s application for compensation in 2016, saying his overtime hours fell below the government’s 80-hour per month guideline.

But for the first time in 20 years, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2021 reviewed its industrial accident compensation guidelines for workers who develop brain and heart diseases.

Instead of focusing primarily on the number of overtime hours worked, the new guidelines said the actual working conditions should be considered.

The ministry made clear that before handing down a ruling, labor officials must take into account various factors, such as hours worked continuously, even if the OT amount falls below the monthly threshold.

After the guidelines were overhauled, labor officials at the Kyoto office reassessed the 2016 ruling.

They concluded that the victim’s workload was excessive because he had to continue cleaning vehicles using high-temperature steam at a facility with no air conditioning.

His fatigue and health problems accumulated from this hard labor, they said.

Yoshihide Tachino, the lawyer representing the victim’s family, praised the new ruling.

“It is a huge step forward because labor authorities went beyond the work hours and considered the burden placed on the victim from the work conditions, such as a workplace with intensive heat,” he said. “The government should take the initiative to compensate victims of similar cases.”

The family had filed a lawsuit at the Kyoto District Court in 2019, demanding the nullification of the labor authorities’ first decision.

With the new ruling, the bereaved family dropped the lawsuit.

A representative of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus told The Asahi Shimbun that the company takes the case seriously and will work to ensure improved workforce management.

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