Unpaid overtime wages at the company amount to more than ¥120 million, and the labor bureau believes the president and other executives gave orders not to pay the overtime, officials said.

Bic Camera allegedly failed to pay overtime allowances totaling ¥127 million to some 110 employees at its outlets in Tokyo's Ikebukuro and Shinjuku districts between December 2003 and last November. Failure to pay overtime is a violation of the Labor Standards Law.

The company is also suspected of having made 280 employees work overtime for longer than the monthly limit as stipulated in a labor-management agreement between last April and November.

The agreement bans overtime work in excess of 80 hours per month, and in some cases 110.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 5, 2005
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