RPT - Matsushita Electric to allow 30,000 white-collar staff to work from home |
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Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:59
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TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co said it would begin a telework program for nearly half of its employees in Japan as part of the private sector's effort to cope with an ageing society.Some 30,000 of its 76,000 employees, excluding factory workers, safety inspectors, secretaries and some others, will be eligible to work from home starting April 1, the electronics giant behind the Panasonic brand said.Under the program, applicants will be allowed to work from home once or twice a week on average, with the company loaning out computers and cameras to them for online conferences.The stay-home workers will do their jobs through high-speed Internet lines and report their hours to their supervisors by e-mail or telephone, the company said.'Tackling the concerns of rapid ageing and the low birthrate is a common task for both the management and the labor union,' said company spokesman Akira Kadota.'The program will allow our employees to have job flexibility to take care of children or the elderly,' the spokesman said.'On the other hand, it will allow the company to secure talented workers as the country is faced with the problem of an ageing society,' Kadota said. 'We have to change ourselves in accordance with a change in society.'IBM Japan Ltd, which adopted a work-from-home policy for all personnel in 2001, has led the way in telecommuting in Japan. Depending on the department, roughly 30 pct of IBM Japan workers telecommute one or two days a week.
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Matsushita Electric to allow 30,000 white-collar staff work from home - report 