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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Questions rise about temps, overwork at Toyota
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-10 14:30 TOYOTA, Japan -- Toyota Motor Corp. has long boasted a stellar reputation for super-efficient production that has become the lore of countless business success books. But recently, criticism is starting to surface in Japan about the potential social costs of the company's prized, and once virtually never-criticized, labor practices. Within the past year, the deaths of two Toyota employees were found, under Japanese law, to have been caused by overwork. Then in June, a downtown stabbing spree by a disgruntled worker at a Toyota subsidiary stunned Japan. The incident, which left seven dead, prompted further public scrutiny of the country's leading automaker. Some questioned whether its aggressive cost cuts were putting a stressful squeeze on its employees. Much of the emerging criticism applies to Japanese companies generally, and Toyota is far from the worst offender. But Toyota stands out as this nation's model company and has been widely praised for turning worker empowerment into a key driver of sales and profit growth. Whether these incidents are just bumps in the road or a harbinger of change at the automaker, and Japan overall, remains to be seen. A book published last year, "The Dark Side of Toyota," paints a bleak picture of Toyota workers, deprived of personal time and forced to live up to expectations of dedication and loyalty that journalists Masahiro Watanabe and Masaaki Hayashi compare to brainwashing. "Workers ... aren't machines. They get sick. And they make mistakes," the book reads in part. "But the Toyota System fails to recognize any of that. It appears to be an extremely rational system. But it is, in fact, totally irrational." The National Labor Committee, a New York-based human rights organization that usually focuses on sweatshops in developing countries, weighed in earlier this year with a scathing report on Toyota, including what it said was abuse of temporary workers. Toyota denied the allegations. The criticisms, not unique to Toyota, are twofold. One is the growing use of temporary agency workers, such as the man arrested for the killing rampage in Tokyo in June. The practice, driven by the pressure to reduce costs amid global competition, is a major break with the tradition of lifetime employment at Japan's major companies. The "haken," which means dispatched in Japanese, generally get lower pay, few benefits and can be laid off at any time. Unable to afford rent, some sleep in semiprivate booths at Internet cafes. Many feel like outcasts in Japanese society, because of the pressure to conform and the history of lifetime employment. The other issue is Japan's infamous workaholic culture. Workers, especially the more competent ones, get leaned on, sometimes to their physical and emotional breaking point. The worst cases end in "karoshi," or death from overwork. Kenichi Uchino, a 30-year-old Toyota quality control worker, collapsed at the flagship Tsutsumi plant near Toyota headquarters in 2002, dying of heart failure. His 38-year-old widow, Hiroko Uchino, said her husband frequently worked past midnight. Typically, after a few hours sleep, he awoke to eat breakfast with his two children before heading back to work, she recalled, adding that she is speaking out in hopes it will bring about change. "With all the profit Toyota is making, it's not going to go bankrupt if it allows its workers to lead human lives," Uchino said in an interview at her home near Toyota city, showing family photographs and the detailed diagrams her husband had drawn for quality control meetings. "Toyota may be No. 1 in vehicle production and sales, but I don't think it's No. 1 in much else," she said. Speaking out in this way is extremely rare in Japan. In November, the Nagoya District Court ruled Uchino died of overwork, doing more than 100 hours of overtime a month, much of it unpaid, including so-called voluntary quality control meetings held after regular work hours. |
