The labor ministry will enhance measures against companies that make workers use their own money to buy the products they sell to reach their sales quotas, officials said Monday.
The ministry will encourage companies to take action against such practices by defining them as a form of so-called power harassment, or abuse of employees by people in authority, in guidelines based on a labor measures promotion law.
Reported cases of such practices include those of employees being forced into signing contracts for car insurance or mutual aid, buying unsold Christmas cakes or covering payments for orders taken wrongly at restaurants.
The guidelines will define such practices as power harassment if three conditions are met — when the practices are based on superior-subordinate relationships; when they go beyond the scope necessary and reasonable for business; and when they harm the work environment of employees.
Companies must take action if practices that constitute power harassment are found to have been committed.
In June, the government adopted a regulatory reform implementation plan, which includes measures against the practice of forcing employees to buy the products of their employers to meet their sales quotas.
The Labor Policy Council, which advises the labor minister, has already approved the measures. The government is expected to decide on the addition of the measures to the guidelines within this year.