Yomiuri: Public officials likely to have work day cut by 15 minutes
The National Personnel Authority is considering reducing the working hours of national government employees by 15 minutes a day to seven hours and 45 minutes from the current eight hours from 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The reduction is in line with a trend of shorter stipulated working hours for private company employees. The Labor Standards Law stipulates that private firms should not make employees work more than 40 hours a week, or eight hours a day. However, company regulations often stipulate shorter working hours than the law as the trend toward shorter hours spreads with the popularization of the five-day work week...It has already asked ministries about their respective situations, and decided that even if working hours are reduced by 15 minutes, this will not affect their basic operations...However, past surveys by the NPA also found that employees of smaller companies tend to work longer hours, and the reduction likely will lead to a greater gap between these employees and government workers. The move is also likely to be criticized for representing an effective pay raise for government workers...more...
