French public sector workers across the nation’s 9 main unions have engaged in another strike against President Macron’s economic policies. The strikes have affected schools and flights, grounding at least 450,000 travelers across Europe.
Today, the Japan labor standard office determined the suicide of a 23-year old employee of Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium construction site stemmed from overwork. Hiroshi Kawahito had recorded 190 hours of overtime in one month. Last week, Japanese broadcasting firm “NHK” disclosed the death of one of their journalists in the summer of 2013. Miwa Sado had worked 159 hours of overtime over a summer and died of congestive heart failure a month later. “Karoshi,” or “death from overwork,” became a widely recognized phenomenon in the 1980s for Japanese workers and continues to affect the workforce. This week, Japan’s biggest advertising company, “Dentsu,” was fined a token sum of 500,000 yen (about $4400) for forcing its staff to work overtime over agreed-upon union limits. Dentsu employee Matsuri Takahashi had committed suicide on Christmas of 2015 in a case that was also labeled as karoshi.
Amidst the reactions to sexual harassment allegations and investigations of Harvey Weinstein, Gretchen Carlson, the former anchor at Fox who filed a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, has written an piece on changes to arbitration policies that employers and Congress must take to encourage women to report incidents of sexual harassment.
Today, Lufthansa and its main pilots’ union signed an agreement that includes a shift from a defined benefit to a defined contribution pension scheme, has more flexible working hours and aims to increase the average retirement age of pilots. In exchange for lower staff costs and reduced pension liabilities, Lufthansa will hire junior pilots and have increased pay. The New York Times reports.
Daily News & Commentary
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May 20
LIRR strike ends after three-day shutdown; key senators reject Trump's proposed 26% cut to Labor Department budget; EEOC moves to eliminate employer demographic reporting requirement.
May 19
Amazon urges 11th Circuit to overturn captive-audience meeting ban; DOL scraps Biden overtime rule; SCOTUS to decide on Title IX private right of action for school employees
May 18
California Department of Justice finds conditions at ICE facilities inhumane; Second Circuit rejects race bias claim from Black and Hispanic social workers; FAA cuts air traffic controller staffing target.
May 17
UC workers avoid striking with an 11th-hour agreement; Governor Spanberger vetoes public employee collective bargaining protections; Samsung workers prepare for an 18-day strike.
May 15
SEIU 32BJ pioneers new health insurance model; LIRR unions approach a strike; and Starbucks prevails against NRLB in Fifth Circuit.
May 14
MLB begins negotiating; Westchester passes a new wage act; USDA employees sue the Agriculture Secretary.