In an internal investigation following the suicide of an overworked employee in 2016, Subaru Corp said that its 3,400 employee remain unpaid for overtime wages over a two year period.
Subaru is a Japanese automaker which is known for its cars Forester and Legacy, the company said on Friday that from mid-2015 to mid-2017 an amount of 776 million yen ($7.08 million) remained outstanding against wages. The outstanding amount had been paid by the company in March to 3,421 of its employees in back dates.
The news surfaced in Japanese media upon disclosure of some of the findings of the investigations this week by the representatives of the family of deceased worker.
In 2016, authorities in Japan ruled the death of Suabru’s office worker aged 46 jumped from the roof of the factory, as “karoshi” or death from overwork. That was the time when popularity of Subaru’s cars in its main market of the United States was reaping in bumper sales and profits for the company.
In its internal investigations, Subaru conducted survey with its employees and through that it revealed to the company that in order to remain within the budgeted limit of overtime work, most of the worker remain reporting their overtime hours less than the actual overtime they worked for. Upon revelation of that underreporting of overtime hours, Subaru took measure to bar the workers from reporting falsely about their actual working hours.
The company said that it continued talks with the family of deceased worker and also said that against the overtime pay and amount of 4.08 million is payable to the worker by the company.
In 2017, company had recalled hundreds of thousands of cars for flaw and to inspect those vehicle workers have to work overtime and nonpayment of the overtime indicates the governance lapses in the company.
