A store manager with hamburger chain McDonald's in Japan who died of a brain haemorrhage was a victim of "karoshi" or death by overwork, a regional labour office said Wednesday. The woman, employed at an outlet in Yokohama near Tokyo and reportedly aged 41, had done more than 80 hours of overtime per month before she collapsed in October 2007 during a training programme at a different store.
She died in hospital three days later, said an official at the Kanagawa Labour Bureau, which oversees the Yokohama region. "We determined her work caused the illness," said the official in charge of work-related compensation, a decision that makes her dependent family members eligible to receive a public pension.
"She had early symptoms such as headaches some three weeks before she collapsed, and we presume she already had the illness at that point." McDonald's Co (Japan) Ltd declined to comment on the case, with a spokesman saying only that the company had not been contacted by authorities and had not confirmed the decision by itself.
The woman had performed more than 80 hours of overtime a month on average for the six months before she suffered early symptoms, although she had a vacation shortly before she collapsed in October, the official said. Japan's welfare and labour ministry investigates whether deaths are caused by excessive work if the victim had performed monthly overtime of 80 hours or more for the preceding six months, or 100 hours for the previous one month.
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