Displaying Items By Tag: Workers

During the hard times caused by the coronavirus pandemic, automakers are helping any way they can, big or small. Mazda is one of those offering support specifically for the nation's healthcare workers who are risking their own lives in order to save others. Mazda calls it the Essential Car Care Program (ECCP), and it offers free upkeep to any healthcare workers with a car, not just a Mazda.

Through the ECCP,  Mazda is offering healthcare workers free oil changes and "enhanced cleaning services." The program begins April 16, 2020, and will run through select participating dealerships. To repeat, this is not only for people who drive Mazdas, it's for anybody working in healthcare. Mazda says it is "available for most makes and models from other manufacturers," excluding exotics, classic cars, off-road vehicles, and vehicles that take more than eight quarts of oil. The offer is available for service on one car per program period.

The Japanese government plans to continue asking businesses to let more employees work from home, to substantially cut social contact for the coronavirus in state-of-emergency areas.

The government wants to mitigate person-to-person contacts by at least 70 percent, or preferably by 80 percent, in Tokyo and six other prefectures. It says the reduction will help contain the spread of the virus as quickly as possible.

Japan's labor ministry says job placement centers will offer counseling to foreign workers to prevent unfair treatment by employers hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ministry plans to deploy 40 counselors at job placement centers in areas with large numbers of foreign residents. The counselors will handle complaints from foreign workers and give advice to their employers.

Nissan is laying off about 10,000 workers in the U.S. as its plants sit idle. These layoffs will largely affect folks who worked at plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, according to a report by Nikkei. 

As of now, Nissan has announced plant shutdowns lasting through late April. The report says Nissan plans to rehire the workers that are being laid off once work is possible again, but they won't be getting paid in the meantime. We've asked for comment from Nissan to learn if everybody will be brought back on, or if Nissan has other plans in mind for restarting its factories.

A nonprofit group is offering telephone consultations for foreign workers in Japan whose livelihoods are at risk due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"Posse" provided consultations in English and Japanese on Sunday afternoon.

A Japanese government survey shows that business sentiment among workers sharply dropped in February due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

The Cabinet Office on Monday released the results of the monthly Economy Watchers Survey. It questioned more than 2,000 workers, including shop clerks and taxi drivers, about how they feel about the economy.

Officials with Japan's biggest trade union group say the coronavirus outbreak is causing a great deal of anxiety for workers. They say that in response to the growing number of inquiries they've been getting on the matter, they've set up a dedicated hotline to answer questions.

The officials say in recent weeks they've been receiving more and more calls, mainly from contract and part-time staff.

Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan plans to promote a four-day work week for care workers as part of work reform measures to attract more to the field.

Japan's health ministry estimates the prefecture will face a shortage of more than 4,700 of such caregivers in fiscal 2025.

Japan is scrambling to make arrangements for citizens seeking to get out of Wuhan, a Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.

Officials want workers to notify the government of their plans to stay or go.

A Japanese medical trainee says he heard that health care workers in Wuhan may have been infected with the new strain of coronavirus weeks before the media reported about it. He made the comment during a telephone interview with NHK.

The man in his twenties graduated from a university in China and trained at a hospital in Wuhan until around January 10.

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the firm plans to assign more of its employees to decommissioning work there. The move follows a series of mistakes and other troubles at the site.

Tokyo Electric Power Company President Tomoaki Kobayakawa disclosed the plan when he was summoned to the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Thursday to discuss the cause of the problems and preventive measures.