Posting on behalf of a friend who doesn’t have reddit, but she (let’s call her Jessica) works for a school owned by Company A which was recently purchased by Company B.
Since Jessica’s child was rejected from daycare, she went to apply to extend her maternity leave through the school which she thought was still owned by Company A, who has been doing all the paperwork up until then.
Jessica followed up on it and found out that Company A was purchased by Company B. Company B then emails saying that since she can speak Japanese they’ll switch her to another school closer to her home and find a daycare for her child – essentially rejecting her maternity leave rejection.
Likewise, she was informed that since Company B will try to get her back to work asap, she needs to sign a new contract as the old contract was valid with Company A.
I just want to ask, but can companies reject maternity leave extensions? She is in this limbo state where she’s probably technically not an employee of Company B, but no longer one of Company A either.
For what it’s worth, she would rather stay home with her child than go back to work, hence why I’m writing this post. It also sounds like the handover didn’t go over well because she wasn’t even included on the employee list from Company A so it sounds like Company B is just learning about this now.
Edit:
Just for clarification, she was denied from daycare and has a certificate from her ward office proving so.
Edit #2:
There was an update and Jessica went on to make her own post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/124aqj1/fired_during_maternity_leave/?sort=new
4 comments
No. Go talk to kuyakusho or shiyakusho
Last I checked, you can only extend maternity leave if you are not able to find a daycare. I guess your friend did not apply to daycares and so she does not have a “couldn’t find daycare” certificate from her ward office. In this case she is not allowed to extend.
>Jessica followed up on it and found out that Company A was purchased by Company B.
Since Company A was **purchased**, I’m going to assume this was done through a stock transfer. Correct me if I’m wrong because things slightly change in that case.
>Likewise, she was informed that since Company B will try to get her back to work asap, she needs to sign a new contract as the old contract was valid with Company A.
Strike one! Normally speaking your friend’s contract should not be signed again, but things get a little complicated here depending on how the company was acquired. Please tell your friend not to sign anything, get more detailed information, and get some legal advice if necessary.
>I just want to ask, but can companies reject maternity leave extensions?
I get some conflicting information here, but this should be a hard no if her child is younger than 1.5 years old. Strike two!
>She is in this limbo state where she’s probably technically not an employee of Company B, but no longer one of Company A either.
No worries, regardless of what type of business transfer we’re talking about here, they can’t just toss out her employment. Her being on maternity leave doesn’t change anything about this by the way. If anything, she would still need to get officially fired, but good luck with firing someone during their maternity leave and getting away with it.
>It also sounds like the handover didn’t go over well because she wasn’t even included on the employee list from Company A so it sounds like Company B is just learning about this now.
Strike three and they’re out of heeeeeeere! Yeah, this doesn’t sound very professional at all. Your friend almost definitely needs some proper legal advice.
Just going by the information provided, it sounds like a bit of confusion. Maybe on purpose. Partly probably on your side as well.
To clarify, your friend isn’t in limbo. She’s employed. Depending on the structure, either still employed by Company A, now a subsidiary, or by Newco – merged A/B. If they deny that (which it doesn’t sound like they are doing) that would be an interesting legal issue.
Second, did they deny the extension or just try to come up with a solution?
Third, even their solution probably doesn’t work, because you need to apply for houiken way, way in advance. So unless they own a houikuen and are suggesting she use that, there’s like zero chance that she’ll get in this year so it is a moot point.