Recently, “customer harassment” has become a hot topic in Japan. How should companies deal with unreasonable demands or abuse from customers?
Companies are legally required to implement measures to prevent sexual harassment, power harassment or harassment relating to pregnancy, childbirth and childcare and caregiver leave. There is no legal requirement to take measures about customer harassment, but cases of unreasonable customer behaviors or complaints have been on the rise. Businesses are increasingly adopting policies on customer harassment. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has also established an ordinance to prevent customer harassment.
According to the results of the Labor Ministry’s fact-finding survey on harassment in the workplace in May, 27.9% of the companies that responded said they experienced cases of customer harassment at least once in the past three years. Changes in the number of consultation cases show the ratio of respondents who said, “cases of customer harassment are increasing” was higher than the ratio of those who said, “cases are declining.” In other types of harassment, (sexual harassment, power harassment, harassment relating to recruitment, etc.,) the ratio of respondents who said, “cases are declining,” was higher than those who said “cases are increasing.”
The Labor Ministry’s leaflet, “Let’s take measures to prevent customer harassment!” defines customer harassment as follows;
“Customers’ complaints or behaviors, whose methods or manners to materialize their demands are inappropriate under social conventions in the context of the demands, and whose methods or manners disrupt the workplace environment”
In some cases, customer complaints help companies improve their operations or develop new products or services, making it difficult to determine whether complaints should be considered as harassment. As examples of “inappropriate customer demands,” the leaflet provides “cases where products or services provided by a company have no defects or faults,” or “cases where a customer’s demand is unrelated to products of services provided by a company.” As examples of “inappropriate methods or manners to materialize the demands under social conventions,” it cites physical abuse (violence, assaults), psychological abuse (blackmail, defamation, libel and slander, violent language), or forcing staff to kneel down and apologize.
As preventive actions, companies are advised to take the following four measures;
1. Clarify the company’s basic policy and stance regarding customer harassment and increase employees’ awareness about the policy and stance.
2. Establish a structure to listen to employees who experienced harassment
3. Draw up measures and processes to deal with harassment cases
4. Provide employee training about internal rules on the handling of harassment cases
The leaflet also provides measures to be taken after an incident.
1. Gain correct understanding about how it happened and take appropriate action.
2. Provide necessary care for employees involved
3. Implement measures to prevent recurrence
4. Take other necessary actions (measures to protect employees’ privacy, measures to prevent disadvantageous treatment of employees who reported harassment, notification of these measures to employees)
Some companies disclose their basic policies on their websites. Please check them for your reference as needed.
[Reference]
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
“Preventing workplace harassment (sexual harassment, harassment relating to pregnancy, childbirth, childcare leave, etc., power harassment”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/koyoukintou/seisaku06/index.html
“Let’s take measures to prevent customer harassment”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11900000/000899376.pdf
“Results of fact-finding survey regarding workplace harassment”https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_40277.html
The Cabinet Office, “2024 Basic policy on economy and fiscal management and reforms”
https://www5.cao.go.jp/keizai-shimon/kaigi/cabinet/honebuto/2024/decision0621.html
*The information is based on laws and regulations as of the date of this article.
