Japanese Government Workers Punished With Pay Cuts For Leaving Work Two Minutes Early

Would there be a riot if this is implemented in Malaysia?

A number of staff members from the Funabashi City Board of Education in the Chiba Prefecture, Japan are facing a salary cut for leaving the office two minutes early. The authorities found 316 departures that had taken place between May 2019 to January 2021, reported The Sankei News.

When asked by the Board of Education, the workers gave a reason that they punched out 2 minutes earlier as they wanted to go home early to catch the 5.17pm bus. If they missed that, they will be forced to catch the next bus at 5.47pm.

The “gang leader” for the whole operation, a 59-year-old female employee assistant chief, has been punished with a one-tenth reduction in salary for three months. The salary cut is expected to reimburse the Board of Education with approximately 137,000 yen (RM5,163.73) to cover the accumulated unreported leave.

Japanese netizens have called out the Board of Education and pointed out that if a staff is getting penalised for leaving two minutes early, should he or she get paid overtime when they leave one minute later?

“It would be nice if, when they found out about the bus timetable, they could make some flexible arrangement for government workers like getting them to come in a bit earlier instead.”

Have you faced a similar situation? Let us know in the comments section!

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