労働者としてのエコノート An Eco-naut as a Worker

This paper deals with anticipated legal problems in the employment of one kind of scientific researcher. A researcher working and living in a closed area of an experimental facility, such as the closed ecology experiment facilities (CEEF), submarines, the international space station (ISS) and similar experimental analogues of the ISS and so on, has to be seen from the viewpoint of the labor laws as a worker. In Japan, it is possible that a long term engagement for such experiments lasting more than several months is against the Labor Standards Law which provides maximum working hour regulations and also against Article 18 of the Constitution of Japan which prescribes prohibition of bondage of any kind. To clarify the problems, interpretations of the laws were studied from the following two viewpoints : (1) application of overtime exemption to researchers staying in the CEEF, who are called Eco-nauts (analogous to astronauts), and (2) judgement of resting time and holidays in CEEF as non-working time. As a result, it was considered that the former could not be applied to the Eco-nauts because overtime exemption can not be applied to scientific researchers in Japan. On the other hand, the latter could be, because free time spent in the module can be judged as non-working time provided that the living conditions of the Mini-earth are comfortable enough. Both (1) and (2) could not be applied to submarines and the ISS. It seemed that another interpretation or amendment of these laws is necessary.