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Press Release

Results of supervision/instructions to employers of decontamination works (January – June, 2013) and request to the employers

The Fukushima Labour Bureau (Director: Tomonori Kawai) compiled the results of the latest supervision/instructions to decontamination employers.
Based on the result, the Fukushima Labour Bureau will request the primary contractors who are implementing decontamination works to observe the Labour Standards Act and other relevant laws.

1. Results of supervision/instructions (See Table 1 and 2)

The Fukushima Prefectural Labour Department has issued supervisions and instructions to 388 employers within jurisdiction of the Labour Standards Inspection Offices during the period from January to June 2013 in order to ensure proper conditions of employment and the safety and health of workers engaged in decontamination works. The investigations were focused on conditions of employment such as clear indication of conditions of employment, payment of wage, and working hours, reflecting the circumstances that the inquiries were raised about wage and other conditions of employment such as special duty (decontamination) allowance. Among those employers, a total 264 (violation rate of 68%) were recognized as being in violation of applicable laws such as the Labour Standards Act or Industrial Safety and Health Act. Corrective recommendations were issued to these employers to correct said violations accordingly. The number of violations was 684, among which 473 were those relevant to conditions of employment; payment of wages (Article 24 of LS Act), payment of increased wages (Article37 of LS Act), clear indication of wages and other conditions of employment (Article 15 of LS Act) and preparation of payroll books (Article 108 of LS Act). Violations numbering 211 were those relevant to safety and health; operation leader (Article 22 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, and Article 9 of the Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination) and implementation of special medical examination (Article 22 of the said Act and Article 20 of said Ordinance).

2. Survey results of responses by the employers on the special audit conducted by the Labour Standards Inspection Office

The Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau investigated the claim and the violation against the Labour Standard Act as a response to the media news indicating that some of employers forced their workers not to reveal about non-payment of decontamination allowance at the time when the Labour Standards Inspection Office, under the jurisdiction of the Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau, implemented supervision/instructions to decontamination sites on November and December 2012. As a result, the Labour Standard Inspectors confirmed that: some employers explained or directed workers to tell not the spendable income but gross base wage; some employers forced workers to tell that they received a decontamination allowance even though they had not explained that they were eligible to receive the decontamination allowance. It should be noted that there were no cases in which employers replied falsely. For these violations, corrective recommendations were issued to those employers for violation with respect to clear indication of wages and other conditions of employment, and a deduction of accommodation costs from the wage.

3. Request to primary contractor

Based on the results described above, the Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau will request to the primary contractors who are implementing decontamination works to observe the Labour Standards Act and other relevant laws, focusing particularly on provisions to which many violations were found, such as clear indication of wages and other conditions of employment and payment of wages.

4. Other actions

(1)    Cooperation with the Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration The Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau has provided the Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration with information on any non-payment of special duty allowance (decontamination allowance) since November 2012. Information on non-payment cases provided to date is 11 and 9 during the period from November 2012 to March 2013, and from April 2013 to June 2013 respectively.   (2)    Labour consultation desk The Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau and the Labour Standards Inspection Offices in Fukushima Prefecture provide with consultation about working conditions such as non-payment of wages and dismissal of workers engaged in decontamination works.

Office	Address	Phone	Jurisdiction area
Fukushima Prefectural Labour Bureau	Fukushima government office complex 5F Kasumi-town 1-46, Fukushima-city, Zip:960-8021	024-536-4602 (Inspection Division)
Fukushima	Fukushima government office complex 1F Kasumi-town 1-46, Fukushima-city, Zip:960-8021	024-536-4610	Fukushima-city, Nihonmatsu-city, Date-city, Date-county, Soma-county Iitate-village
Koriyama	Kuwano 2-1-18, Koriyama-city Zip:963-8025	024-922-1370	Koriyama-city, Tamura-city, Motomiya-city, Tamura-county, Adachi-county
Iwaki	Iwaki local government office complex 4F Doune-town 4-11, Taira, Iwaki-city, Zip:970-8026	0246-23-2255	Iwaki-city
Aizu	Shiromae 2-10, Aizuwakamatsu-city, Zip:965-0803	0242-26-6494	Aizuwakamatsu-city, Onuma-county,Minamiaizu-county, Yama-county (Inawashiro-town, Bandai-town), Kawanuma-county
Shirakawa	Kakunai 1-124, Shirakawa-city, 961-0074	0248-24-1391	Shirakawa-city, Nishishirakawa-county, Higashishirakawa-county
Sukagawa	Asahi-town 204-1, Sukagawa-city,Zip:962-0834	0248-75-3519	Sukagawa-city, Iwase-county, Ishikawa-county
Kitakata	Suwa 91, Kitakata-city, Zip:966-0896	0241-22-4211	Kitakata-city, Yama-county (Nishi-aizu-town, Kita-shiobara-village)
Soma	Sakuragaoka 68, Nakamura, Soma-city, Zip:976-0042	0244-36-4175	Soma-city, Minamisoma-city, Soma-county Shinchi-town
Tomioka	LATOV Building 8F Tamachi 120, Taira, Iwaki-city, Zip:970-8026	0246-35-0050	Hutaba-county

	Jan.- June, 2013	Total (Apr 2012 – June 2013)
No. of supervised employers	388	630
No. of violators	264	372
Violation rate	68.0%	59.0%
No. of cases of violation	684	903
Violations relevant to conditions of employment	473	512
Violations relevant to safety and health	211	391

(1) Violations relevant to conditions of employment

	Jan.- June, 2013	Total (Apr 2012 – June 2013)
Clear identification of wages and other conditions of employment (Article 15 of LS Act)	82	93
Non-payment of wage (Article 24 of LS Act)	67	73
Deduction of social party fee, accommodation cost or food consumption without a labour-management agreement	36	38
No payment of wages for the hours spent for the monitoring of internal exposure	6	9
No payment of wages for the hours spent for special education	16	20
Working hours (Article 32 of LS Act)	53	57
Payment of increased wages (Article 37 of LS Act)	108	110
Preparation of lists of workers (Article 107 of LS Act)	52	59
Preparation of payroll books (Article 108 of LS Act)	90	97

(2) Violations relevant to safety and health

		Jan.- June, 2013	Total (Apr 2012 – June 2013)
Art.22 of SH Act	Dose Measurement (Article 5 of the Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	13	21
	Prior survey (Article 7 of the Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	20	54
	Operation leader (Article 14 of the Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	6	11
	Contamination survey of those leaving the contaminated area (Article 14 of the Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	14	31
	Contamination survey of articles taken out from the contaminated area (Article 15 of Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	2	14
	Use of protecting equipment (Article 16 of Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	7	16
	Provision of radiation measurement devices (Article 26 of Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	0	8
Art. 59 of SH Act	Implementation of special education (Article 19 of Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	16	30
Art. 66 of SH Act	Implementation of special medical examination (Article 20 of Ionizing Radiation Ordinance for Decontamination)	8	29

An increase in the number of violations related to conditions of employment can be observed in the data published this month (for the period from January – June 2013). This may be because the investigations were focused on conditions of employment such as clear indication of conditions of employment, payment of wage, and working hours. A lot of inquiries were provided about wage and other conditions of employment, particularly for workers on special duty (decontamination) allowance since November 2012.

◎Trend of violations

(1) Table 2 (1)

• Most of violations against the provision to clarify conditions of employment (Article 15 of the Labour Standards Act) are those where items specified in the Labour Standards Act or other Act have not been described; e.g. conditions of employment are not shown in written form when employing workers; daily wages and special duty (decontamination) allowance are not written separately.


• As for the violation against payment of wage on a regular basis (Article 24 of the Labour Standards Act), a deduction of accommodation cost or food consumption without a labour-management agreement is the case observed most frequently. In addition, non-payment of wages for the hours spent for the monitoring of internal exposure or special education for decontamination were also observed in many cases.


• Most of the violations against payment of increased wages (Article 37 of the Labour Standards Act) were non-payment of increased wages for working extra hours, in excess of 40 hours a week.
  It should be noted that, in some case, the special duty (decontamination) allowance was not included in the calculation of the increased wage.


• In many cases, the workers list and payroll book had been prepared, however, they have not included items specified in the Labour Standards Act or other Acts.

(2) Table 2 (2)

	For violations relevant to safety and health, special education about decontamination was, though conducted, insufficient with respect to lecture hours or lecture course, or dust mask or dosimeter that was not properly worn in some cases.
	These violations relevant to safety and health would be difficult to correct by the subcontractors themselves. Thus we encourage primary contractors to provide the subcontractors with guidance for correction, and to cooperate in achieving proper health care for workers.