so i’ve googled a bit about paid time off in japan and generally understand the laws about minimum amount, timing, requests, and so on, but i can’t find anything about whether a company must give employees a written explanation of their PTO policy.
all i know is that i got my initial 10 days after working 6 months. several of my coworkers have told me different things about how it goes from there, and nothing about my remaining days is ever printed on my payslips. the only thing everyone can agree on is that if i want to check how many days i have left i have to call home office… that just sounds fishy to me because what if i’m told the wrong amount? (i do keep track, i’m just saying…)
my last job had a detailed explanation of all policies, including PTO amounts and when it’s distributed. why are my coworkers at this job telling me it’s “not written” anywhere??? do i have any legal right to request a written explanation?
3 comments
If you do not have an explicit contract, then there should be a document called 就業規則 or something similar. This document will set forth all of these terms and conditions. Your company may only have it in Japanese, but unless it’s a mom and pop shop, they should have it.
When I was a prefectual employee many years ago, I never really knew how many days off I had at any given point in time. It wasn’t on my pay slips, and it wasn’t explicitly told to me. I had to go to the admin office and check the manual papers.
In my current work place, that information is tracked digitally now, so I know when I get em, when they renewed, when I lost some to expiry (same point in time), and how many I have left. However, for the first couple of years, it was still call Tokyo and they’ll tell me, when we were more paper based.
Like others have said, all the info you need about your company’s policies is in the 就業規則 and any documents it refers to. There is no specific legal obligation to let you know how many days of paid leave you have left if you don’t ask though. It’s just good practice for them to do so.