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A week’s worth of questions about paid leave
Paid leave. The long form in Japanese is nenji yūkyū kyūka; the short form is yūkyū. For workers, yūkyū is a day of “complete liberation from toil,” as one scholar put it. The right to rest fully is vital in ensuring that workers enjoy long, healthy and anxiety-free lives. Unfortunately, some employers do all they can to…
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‘Same work, same pay’ goal may spark a race to the bottom
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently come out to make the case for “same work, same pay.” Call me a cynic, but I suspect an ulterior motive. For years, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s policies have focused on helping prop up struggling corporations and their managers, with working people treated as more of a nuisance.…
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労働実態踏まえ社保加入認める…東京地裁判決
労働時間が正社員の４分の３未満であることを理由に社会保険の加入資格を失うのは不当として、東京都内の英会話学校に勤める男性講師が日本年金機構に加入資格の確認を求めた訴訟で、東京地裁は１７日、男性は保険に加入できるとの判決を言い渡した。舘内比佐志裁判長は、労働時間だけでなく報酬額や職務内容などを総合的に考慮して「加入資格があった」と判断した。
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Tozen Union Wins Berlitz Pension Suit, but …
June 17th, 2016 1:25 PM Tokyo District Court on Friday overturned Japan’s Pension Agency’s 2011 decision rejecting Tozen member Yancey Co’s appeal to enroll in Japan’s shakai hoken health and pension scheme. Co’s employer Berlitz Japan had kicked him off shakai hoken in 2008, after his work hours apparently fell below 30 hours per week…
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Japan is not an “at will” employment country.
Many of our members are not Japanese and work at small or very small companies. Working at small companies has many advantages: it’s often more human and you have a direct relationship with the boss. However, if there are problems, those good points often turn into bad ones, since you can be on the receiving…
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Harcèlement sexuel au Japon : «C’était mon supérieur et je devais obéir»
Elles ne donneront pas leur nom et n’apparaîtront pas en photo. La honte, la timidité, le «dégoût» de soi et la peur de perdre leur emploi sont toujours vifs. Il leur a donc fallu «beaucoup d’énergie pour trouver la force de parler», de nommer les choses et de préciser les gestes. Avant de porter plainte…
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Do Japan’s porn actresses and actors have labor rights?
On May 4, a tiny cafe in Tokyo’s Koenji neighborhood was transformed into an informal meeting hall. Porn-film kingpins (and a “queenpin”) had called an “emergency meeting” to respond to a recently released report by Human Rights Now (HRN). On March 3, the international NGO, which is based in Tokyo and has U.N. special consultative…
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Shakai hoken shake-up will open up pensions for some but close door on benefits for others
June 6, 1980, was a Friday. The Social Insurance Agency quietly issued an untitled internal memo called a naikan regarding the eligibility of part-timers in Japan’s shakai hoken health and pension program. Who could have known what chaos, confusion and frustration that single-page document would cause in the coming decades? Let’s get our hands dirty and dig through the…
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Bearded train driver, out-of-pocket teacher and CV faker: How would they fare in court?
Today, let’s take a look at three shiny new news items from the gossip columns that take on a different sheen when examined under the piercing light of labor law. These human-interest stories have a common theme, which I’ll address later. But first, the stories:
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JCFL（学校法人文際学園：日本外国語専門学校）の不当労働行為が東京都労働委員会で認定されました！
2015年12月15日、私たち、全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオンJCFL支部は、東京都労働委員会で大きな勝利を得ました。