OSAKA -- Sharp Corp. has announced that it did away with its flex-time employment system last month.
Difficulties experienced by employees in working around each other's schedules made it hard for the company to meet customer needs, Sharp officials said.
The system, allowing individuals to customize their working hours, was introduced by major manufacturers in Japan in the late 1980s. Sharp adopted its version in 1988.
However, the electronics giant found that certain divisions within the company, including the sales department, were unable to adopt the system and that communication within the company broke down as a result.
Labor-management discussions on working hours have been ongoing since fall, the officials said.
In place of the flex-time system, the company is looking into alternatives such as a rotation schedule or a discretionary system in which the company does not control work hours.