"International union: Workers still in danger at Olympic sites", 26 Aug 2019

The death of another construction worker at a Tokyo Olympics venue has prompted an international labor union to seek a third party investigation, saying its earlier warning about perilous conditions has been largely ignored.

Workers...said they hope the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) gets more involved in inspecting the “dangerous” construction sites for the Games.

The BWI released a report in May [2019] titled “The Dark Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics” that…detailed the harsh conditions faced by the laborers, including some who worked for 28 straight days in one month. Others were forced to work under huge slabs of concrete swinging from cranes.

The organizing committee and Tokyo metropolitan government interviewed officials of the main contractors of major construction sites…[A] response was sent to BWI arguing, “It was inconceivable for workers to labor 28 straight days since Sundays are, in principle, days off.”

The response also said relevant laws were being obeyed to ensure safety.

However, BWI officials pointed out that no interviews were conducted with the actual laborers at each site, leading to a large gap between reality and what was contained in the report submitted to the BWI…

When the BWI released its May report, it said two construction workers had died in connection with the Tokyo Olympics…