Actively Promoting a Five-day Work Week at Job Sites

Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) is supporting subcontractors and skilled workers to actively promote a five-day work week at job sites. The payment terms for subcontractors were changed in April. From May onward, a wage subsidy equivalent to a certain percentage of the turnover for each month will be provided when the specified conditions for shutting down work at job sites are met. This will prevent skilled workers from experiencing a reduction in income due to an increase in the number of days on which job site work is shut down.

Achieving a five-day work week and work style reform at job sites will require negotiation of the terms between the general contractor and the client and will also require understanding and cooperation from subcontractors and skilled workers. Subcontractors will need to quote work and secure workers based on a five-day work week, and skilled workers will need to increase productivity to absorb the increased costs arising from longer construction periods resulting from a five-day work week. We are providing the subsidies to increase the incentive to wholeheartedly promote work style reform among stakeholders.

The modification of payment terms is based on the Voluntary Action Plan to Standardize Transactions with Subcontractors and Ensure Proper Project Contracting Activities formulated by the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors in March 2017. It was implemented this April. To be specific, the wire transfer date, the discountable date, and the payment date terms for notes payable, electronically recorded monetary claims, and payment deadlines, respectively, were changed from the 5th day of the next month after three months have elapsed to the 5th or the 20th day of the next month after one month has elapsed. This shortened the payment period by roughly two months. The previous 10% withholding at the time of payment of the agreed upon turnover in materials, outsourcing, and equipment was also eliminated.

The wage subsidies for skilled workers, which will begin in May, will be for construction under subcontractor agreements concluded on or before March 2018. From April 2018 onward, job sites that close down for seven days out of every four weeks or eight days out of every four weeks (complete five-day work week) will have 5% or 10% added to labor expenses paid as a percentage of the total turnover of the primary subcontractor. We expect this measure to add around 2 billion yen to total costs over a two-year period, although it will depend on the number of job sites involved.

Shimizu will continue to improve productivity and work to establish proper construction periods. We believe that promoting full adoption of the five-day work week and reducing the amount of overtime work will improve the work environment in the construction industry and make the industry as a whole even more attractive.