Empowered JAPAN Webinar Report

Empowered JAPAN Executive Steering Committee was established in 2018, “To realize a world where everyone canwork and learn, from anywhere, at anytime.” To promote the true value of workstyle innovation including telework, the committee has beencoordinating symposiums in both Tokyo and regional cities. And in collaboration with various local governments, Microsoft, and partners, thecommittee has been serving as an advisor to provide telework training for both corporate and individuals. In response to the spread of infection ofcorona virus (COVID-19) and the government announcement on February 25, 2020, which included the request to citizens to telework, the steeringcommittee made the decision to launch a series of free webinars starting from March 17, 2020, to provide practical information for individuals andorganizations across the nation, to telework and/or practice online education.

Category：System (labor work, subsidy, internal
rules and remote working manuals)

Concept of Labor Management and Evaluation

Date：March, 25, 2020
Speaker：Kaori Takeda
Labor and Social Security Attorney (Certified Social
Insurance and Labour Consultant Corporation NSR)CWO (Chief teleWorkstyle Officer), Telework Style
Promotion Office
Labor and Social Security Attorney

Required for Telework
Telework is a flexible work style that uses information and communication technology (ICT) in order to effectively
use time and space. Currently, working from home is strongly required to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Ms. KaoriTakeda, a labor and social security attorney, recommends separately considering labor management and evaluation forthe categories of "emergency telework" and "telework after full-scale implementation of telework." Ms. Takeda, anexpert counselor at the Japan Telework Association, is a professional who has given over 300 seminars on telework
and assisted in the introduction of telework for more than 1,000 projects. She is also a regional informatization advisor
to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and also serves as a committee member of the Ministry ofHealth, Labor and Welfare.
Let's begin by discussing emergency telework. According to Ms. Takeda, there are three points of labor
management which require particular attention: employment rules, the burden of cost, and evaluation. When leaving
working hours the same and only changing the location of work, telework can be immediately implemented even fromtomorrow. Furthermore, there is no need to change employment rules. "Some managers may worry if employees are
truly focusing on their work or complying with the service regulations in the employment rules," noted Ms. Takeda.
"Other managers may worry about the risk of information leakage. However, if you want to specify supplementary

Labor and Social Security Attorney. Regional
Informatization Advisor, Ministry of Internal Affairs

rules, you can exchange individual pledges and memorandums with teleworkers."
When changing working hours, companies should think carefully before deciding to implement a flextime system,and Communications Visiting Researcher, Japanetc. This is because flextime systems cannot be implemented unless stated in the employment rules. There are noTelework Association. Has given more than 300

exemptions to the Labor Standards Act, even in emergencies. If you want to allow employees to take "temporary

lectures at government offices and other businessbreaks," those breaks must be taken with the scope of the employment rules. One example is using the provisions on

seminars, and has handled more than 1,000
projects to support the promotion of telework atcompanies and organizations throughout Japan.
Authored the series "Forefront of Telework (total of24 articles)" for the Rodo Shimbun newspaper,
supervised the production of "Time for Action!
Work-Style Reform Through Telework" for Nikkei
Mook, co-authored the "Textbook on Introducing
and Operating Telework" for Nihon Horei, andwrote a column for the 136th issue of "Change!
Japan Telecommunications" published by theCabinet Office. Has also been featured many times
in newspapers, magazines, and TV programs.

"time off for personals reasons" as listed in the employment rules. Once work conditions have settled down,
companies should create "Telework Regulations" based on the experience of emergency telework. Then, after listening
to the opinions of the employee representatives, the company should notify the Labor Standards Inspection Officeand proceed with full-scale introduction by notifying employees.

Empowered JAPAN Webinar Report
When using telework for only part of working hours, the Labor Standards Inspection Chief has the discretion to decide whether or not work accident insurance will beapplied in the event of an accident while traveling from one location to another. When considering the difficulty of separating public and private time during travel andthe benefits of reducing travel time, Ms. Takeda suggests avoiding such work styles. Instead, she recommends the combination of half-day telework and half-day paid
leave. "To my client companies, I recommend a style which combines half-day paid leave and half-day telework," said Ms. Takeda. "Simply by taking a half-day of paid
leave once per month, the employee will fulfill the obligation of taking five days of paid leave per year. Furthermore, using telework even for just a half day once permonth is effective for supporting BCP in the event of an emergency.
Another concern of implementing telework is the burden of cost placed on employees. If your employee regulations do not require employees to bear costs, then do
not allow them to do so. "The company should pay for all the work-related expenses such as necessary communication equipment and postage," said Ms. Takeda. "Doingso will prevent conflict with Article 89 of the Labor Standards Act and eliminate the need to change the employment rules."In that case, how should companies handle utility bills which are difficult to separate into public and private charges? According to calculations by NSR, anorganization to which Ms. Takeda belongs, the daily utility bill is between 60.3 and 218.9 yen. Based on this estimate, companies should issue a telework allowance, or
should issue a stipend based on the number of telework hours. There are also some laughable cases in which employees complained of "having to pay for their own
coffee and snacks while working from home." Even in such cases, please carefully explain the purpose and significance of working from home, and hold in-depth
discussions with labor and management.
In terms of evaluation, there is no need to change the evaluation system just for telework if telework is only performed once or twice per week. First of all, it isimportant to communicate while utilizing IT and to "visualize work" through daily reports and job analysis. If telework is used frequently, it may be possible to introduce
performance-based evaluation; however, what is necessary is to raise the awareness of managers and ensure fair evaluation.
"If telework results in a lower evaluation, or if reporting and management requirements are stricter only when engaging in telework, then no one will use telework,"
pointed out Ms. Takeda
Although the topic deviates slightly from telework, let's introduce response if an employee is suspected of being infected with COVID-19. If the employee takes leave
voluntarily, he or she is considering of being absent due to sickness or taking paid leave. If the employee is ordered to go on leave by the company, the company must
pay a leave allowance (at least 60% of the average wage). In this case, it is possible for employees to take paid leave at their own wish; however, they cannot be forced totake paid leave, with the exclusion of systematic use of paid leave or designated seasonal paid leave. If the COVID-19 test shows a positive result unfortunately and theemployee takes leave per work restrictions specified by the prefectural governor, generally speaking, this does not constitute "leave take for a reason attributable to theemployee," and it is not necessary to pay a leave allowance. If the employee is covered by health insurance, he or she will be issued the injury and illness allowance.
So, what are the important points of labor management in order to fully introduce telework after an emergency response? We will now explain these points based onthe "Telework Guidelines" that were formulated in 2018.
According to Ms. Takeda, if a person is employed instead of being self-employed, "all laws related to laborers will apply." We should also comply with informationequipment guidelines in the Industrial Safety and Health Act; specifically, standards for information equipment work such as recommending taking a break from work
once every 60 minutes. Even during teleworking, the need to properly ascertain working hours remains unchanged. Working hours consist of all "time spent under
supervision and instruction of the employer." The user must confirm and record the start and end of work by recording logs on the computer, e-mails, chats, etc.
"Ascertaining the status of working hours, which was mandated by the Industrial Safety and Health Act in 2019, is required to ensure the health of workers, not tocalculate wages," explained Ms. Takeda. "Please note that this also applies to employees using the discretionary labor system and to management supervisors."
At Ms. Takeda's employer NSR, images of the entire office are shown on Zoom 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Teleworkers are always connected to this Zoom stream.
However, there are rules such as turning on only the speaker and then turning on the microphone just when speaking. This Zoom stream is not used to confirm ifemployees are at their desks; instead, the aim is to share the atmosphere of the workplace in order to facilitate communication by remote workers. To ensure privacy andsecurity, NSR does not stream images of the employees' desktops or clear images, and does not record images.
At the end of her lecture, Ms. Takeda emphasized that telework is "a system that enables work for people who want to work." In order to make emergency telework asuccess and then to implement full-scale telework, it is necessary for employees to exercise self-management, and to work with a sense of responsibility and integrity.