Playback ’16] “17-Hour Days, No Days Off” – Overworked Tour Bus Drivers “Worked Too Hard
What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we revisit topics that were popular at the time. This time, we will look back at the February 12, 2004 issue, which was published 10 years ago, with a story titled “The bereaved family tearfully appealed for help! If left unchecked, another tragedy will be born. Tour bus drivers who died of overwork “worked 17 hours a day with no days off.
A ski bus accident occurred in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on January 15, 2004, killing 15 people. As a cause of the accident, the bus company’s sloppy labor management was pointed out, as it allowed a crew unfamiliar with large buses to drive the bus. However, the poor working environment in the industry has long been a problem. The article is a heartbreaking appeal from a bereaved family member who lost her family due to the harsh, long working hours.
There are only a few drivers, so it can’t be helped.
It was on September 23, 2012, that Mr. F., then 44, an express tour bus driver living in Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture, passed away. Until the day before he collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, he had not had a single day off in a month and had worked more than 439 hours in total. His younger brother (45 at the time) confided in us about Mr. F’s grueling work schedule.
“My brother was driving a late-night bus for long-distance tours, mainly between Sano and Kobe, and between Sano and Fukuoka. On many days, he worked up to 17 hours a day. During busy periods such as summer vacation and year-end and New Year holidays, there were almost no days off, and he was forced to drive for long hours from the evening until the next morning.
Mr. F., who joined a bus company in Sano City in July 2010, was a veteran driver who had obtained a large class 2 license nearly 20 years earlier. The company had about eight drivers who drove seven buses, making more than 40 trips a month at the most. The buses were operated on a rotating shift system with two drivers on board, but the driving time was not evenly distributed.
He collapsed on the second floor of his home and never returned.
“My son used to tell me with an exhausted look on his face, ‘I drove almost all by myself today (due to the inexperience of the accompanying driver). When I asked him if his body was okay in such a state, he just replied, ‘It can’t be helped because we don’t have enough drivers. I would often tell him, “It’s OK if you stay overnight, but it’s hard to go back home for a day trip.
On an occasional day off, we went to a nearby spa with our parents, but the boss suddenly called me on my cell phone and said, ‘Enjoy yourselves, even if you’re just mothers,’ and I remember coming to work looking sad,” said F’s mother.
(Ms. F’s mother) “On a bumpy bus ride, lying down on a narrow seat was not enough to rest the body. At home, even when his mother went to wake him up in the morning, he did not wake up more than once or twice.
Then, on September 22, 2012, Mr. F vomited and collapsed on the second floor of his home. An ambulance was called immediately, but his consciousness was clouded and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage without any treatment. The bereaved family, supported by an outside labor union, filed an application for workers’ compensation with the Tochigi Labor Standards Inspection Office in September 2001. In March 2002, the Labor Standards Bureau found that the death was caused by overwork, and in December of the same year, the family filed a lawsuit against the bus company, seeking approximately 42 million yen in damages.
“At the collective bargaining session with the union, the company insisted that they had given the workers plenty of time off, but they refused to provide any data to back this up, explaining that even though they worked 17 hours a day, the actual working hours were half of that because of the shift system.
In March 2003, the president of the bus company and the labor lawyer in charge of the company were charged with violating the Labor Standards Law by reporting to the Labor Standards Bureau that the number of working days of two employees, including Mr. F, had been understated.
FRIDAY made numerous attempts to interview the accused former president, but received no response by the deadline.
Chronic overwork
The long-distance bus industry was deregulated by ’02, and many new operators entered the market. As a result, there was a shortage of drivers and they were getting older. On the other hand, small and medium-sized bus companies, which were forced to accept tours at low fares, were forced to operate a grueling schedule, resulting in a deteriorating work environment. In 2012, a doze-driving accident that killed seven passengers occurred on the Kanetsu Expressway, raising the issue that safety measures had been neglected due to excessive competition.
In the Karuizawa accident, the driver who caused the accident had declared upon joining the company that he was unfamiliar with large buses, but he was put on the job after only two training sessions, and the content of the training was also lax. In the case of route buses, training usually takes three months.
The reason for the harsh work conditions of long-distance bus drivers was that the Notice on Improvement Standards, which set standards for hours of detention and rest periods, had not changed much since the 1980s, and there was a large discrepancy between the actual work conditions and the harsh work conditions. As a result, long hours and continuous operation were the norm. In particular, there was no upper limit to overtime work, which led to the normalization of overworked drivers.
In April 2012, the revised Notice of Standards for Improvement came into effect as a result of the “Workplace Reform” of 2007. The revised rules now take safety and health into consideration by limiting daily working hours to 13 hours in principle and overtime to 960 hours per year. At the same time, however, the industry is facing the so-called “2024 problem,” including a further shortage of drivers and a review of operation plans.
