ABSTRACT
Mental health is not currently defined legally. Various mental health issues arise in the workplace. The most significant is employee suicide, but other issues include absenteeism and presenteeism, the ease with which individuals with mental health issues can be refused employment or be terminated, the increased burden on other workers when an individual continues working even if he or she should be terminated or quit, diminishing organizational commitment, and a dearth of communication in the workplace.
The turning point in Japan was the decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Dentsu case in 2000. An increasing number of cases have found employers liable for mental health issues, and that number is unlikely to fall sharply. Traditionally, human resources and personnel management was the sole province of the employer, but now courts are beginning to intervene in those matters. Policies to implement the Workers’ Accident Compensation Act have formulated criteria for determining whether a mental disorder is work-related. An employer’s human resources and personnel management is now subject to these criteria and the Industrial Safety and Health Act, at least in terms of employee health. In fact, laws have been enacted in the US (at the state level) and in France to limit interference with an employer’s authority over personnel matters in order to promote employee mental health. Related court decisions are being handed down in both countries. That said, various actions to promote employee mental health should be taken beyond the traditionally prescribed scope of labor law. Effective approaches include: i) personnel selection, e.g. hiring and job assignments, ii) training, iii) efforts to increase motivation, iv) job design in relation to the type of work, v) efforts to facilitate communication within an organization, vi) support for workers from supervisors and colleagues in response to abrupt changes in working conditions, and vii) preventing malicious harassment. Another important approach is support for employees with a personality or developmental disorder so that they can adapt to work and the workplace.
