The Tokyo Labor Bureau on Thursday searched the offices of discount electrical appliance retailer Bic Camera Co., which is suspected of failing to pay employees for overtime.

The bureau, a branch of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, believes that the company, based in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, failed to pay 2.5 million yen in overtime allowances to a floor chief at one of its outlets between November 2002 and September 2003, thereby violating the Labor Standards Law.

Bureau investigators searched Bic Camera's headquarters and three other locations, confiscating time cards and payroll books, they said.

Via a secret investigation, labor authorities found that Bic Camera had forced employees to do overtime beyond the limit agreed upon with the company's labor union, they said.

The Tokyo bureau inspected Bic Camera outlets last year and again earlier this year, following a report from a whistle-blower. The company submitted reports in response to the bureau's instructions, but its practice of not paying overtime remained unchanged, they said.

According to its Web site, Bic Camera was established in 1978, is capitalized at 1.05 billion yen, and has about 2,800 employees at 21 outlets across Japan, including 11 in Tokyo.

Bic Camera posted 424.3 billion yen in group sales in the year ended August 2003.

Bic Camera officials declined comment on the search.