Unpaid Overtime is Killing MacDonald's Managers

Japan is notorious for the long hours of work that companies expect from their employees. This service overtime is unpaid overtime that a company expects and often demands from employees. Periodically this culture of unpaid overtime ends up killing otherwise healthy employees who cannot physically handle the stress and the hours involved. The Japanese have a word (karoshi) which translates to roughly “death from overwork.” The latest death by overwork scandal is levied against McDonald's and is winding its way through courts here in Japan.

Recently a 25 year old male, who was managing a store in Kawasaki city collapsed and died due to karoshi. According to a story on the Yomiuri Online, “he was working on November 07, 2009 from noon to the following day at 5 a.m. He then came back to work the same day (Nov. 8) at noon. Soon after he collapsed and died.” (1) The victim's mother is trying to get compensation for the death of her son, but this week she lost a local court decision to receive financial benefit. The January 18, 2010 ruling upheld a labour standard assessment committee's denial to pay compensation.

The latest victim of a ridiculous schedule for the international hamburger shop is by far not the only one. In addition to the deceased manager in Kawasaki, a manager in Saitama Prefecture launched a lawsuit against McDonald's nearly five years ago regarding unpaid overtime. Also, a female manager died from overwork, due to her schedule, managing a Yokohama McDonald's in 2007.

McDonald's Japan lost a lawsuit two years ago with a former manager, who collected roughly $70,000 (USD) in compensation for all his unpaid overtime. Hiroshi Takano had worked an estimated 60-80 hours per month of service overtime, in addition to his normal, paid working schedule. Furthermore, he was denied any paid holidays for 63 days. Takano also sought a further $30,000 (USD) in compensation for mental suffering, but that claim was rejected by the court which heard his case.(2)

“(In October of 2007) A store manager with hamburger chain McDonald's in Japan who died of a brain hemorrhage was a victim of "karoshi" or death by overwork, a regional labour office said.” reports an AFP story from October 2009.(3) This manager who collapsed and died was a 41 year-old woman who was overseeing a Yokohama branch. Her family subsequently launched a lawsuit to collect pension money after the labour bureau ruled that he death was a “Karoshi” death.

“According to the court, the average annual salary of McDonald's shop managers stood at ¥7.07 million ($70,700 USD) in 2005. But the salaries varied, with some 10 percent of managers receiving only ¥5.79 million ($57,900 USD), a level lower than the average annual salary of assistant shop managers, based on evaluations.”(2)

Japanese blogs, and social networking sites are increasingly filling up with comments and posts about the negative aspects of taking a management role for McDonald's. On line users of 2CH have been discussing the seemingly high salary of managers for McDonald's restaurants, but have been warning others about the possibility of literally being worked to death, and discussing negative health aspects.(3)

Many McDonald's managers estimate that they spend roughly 80 hours per month engaged in unpaid overtime. The fact that McDonald's has been expecting managers to work 80 hours unpaid overtime for the past number of years is astonishing. This policy has led to lawsuits and deaths, but still McDonald's Japan expects far too much out of their managers and their policies have obviously changed little. The company has been able to escape with little more than a slap on the hand, despite the fact that karoshi deaths continue to plague the corporate giant.

(1) Yomiuri Online (Translated into English) http://job.yomiuri.co.jp/news/ne_10012004.htm
(2) http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080129a3.html
(3) 7_uyZJCFFGXnT1N6w
(4) http://natto.2ch.net/recruit/kako/982/982941629.html