Chubu Electric Power Co. said Friday it has followed a recommendation by a labor standards inspection office in Nagoya and paid a total of 930 million yen to 6,500 employees for unpaid overtime work.
The number of staff involved -- more than one-third of the firm's total workforce of 17,000 -- is the highest ever in such a case.
The amount of payment is believed to be the second-largest ever, following the 3.5 billion yen payment by major consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. earlier this year.
The Nagoya-based utility firm was advised by the inspection office to pay for such unpaid overtime for three times since April 2001. It paid 260,000 yen to 55 employees in such wages in April.
The latest payments are for overtime work between January and June. One employee, a managerial worker in his 40s, will receive 2.23 million yen for 424 hours of unpaid overtime work.
The company said it will also make payments at the end of November for overtime work retroactive to April 2001.
The labor office probed the utility's headquarters and branch offices in April and May, which exposed a gap between some workers' work records and the wage records kept by the company.