ALT’s refused parental leave, wife ‘resigned’ after requesting and husband denied

Any advice you can give us? I’d love any possible job opportunities for remote work or maybe some miracle advice for our present situation. We’ve contacted the HelloWork office and visited the Labor Standards Bureau many times about this and their advice has always been to discuss it with the company.

We are two foreigners living and working in Japan, American and Filipino. We are both teachers, met at the job, got married and had a baby this April. We both work for a small company in the countryside. When my wife asked for maternity leave, she was quietly resigned and replaced (i.e. fired) and when I asked for childcare leave, I was refused and told many illegitimate reasons why that is. Both of those things are illegal to do in Japan, but because of how the laws out here work, everyone tells us not to pursue legal action and instead discuss our problem with the company and that includes the advice from the Bureau of Labor. After months negotiating, she was given a new contract for the school year that we received in the mail on the 7th of this month. We are now both officially on parental leave until the start of the next school year (April), but we will only receive half our salaries and only then starting some time next month (most likely after the 18th).

If anyone has any questions so that I can clarify or further share information about our situation, please ask.

I’ve also been searching for jobs locally and for remote work, but it’s been difficult to even get an interview. Any advice on this would be great.

I’ve created a gofundme, but that’s disallowed in r/japanlife I am pretty sure.

10 comments
  1. You wanted parental leave, got it after some bickering with the company and you want money from a GoFundMe? What are you asking or what do you want in this post? Or you want to discuss how to find a new job?

    Confused!

  2. Really? a go fund me? You should probably rewrite your post because it’s going everywhere. It said your wife was fired but were you fired too? What happened to the parental leave money?

  3. Go to your city hall and seek additional aid, they should have multiple services. Also, check their website to see if they have English-speaking services.

  4. The parental leave pay you are getting seems correct, not sure what you want to do about getting the required amount?

  5. Okay I’m confused about a number of things.

    First off maternity leave and child care leave are programs through the social insurance system not your employer. You need to apply for them.

    https://www.tokhimo.com/post/maternity-paternity-and-childcare-leave-in-japan-1

    Second it sounds rather fishy that you’ve got a GoFundMe started when you can’t open a GoFundMe with a Japanese bank account.

    Third you need to actually internet you get unemployment insurance from Hello Work. The labor board will handle unpaid wage claims. But like I said maternity and child care leave are paid through the social insurance system not your employer.

    You seem woefully unprepared for parenthood, I suggest you and you and whichever one of you who’s posting this adult. You chose to have a child you can’t afford then appear to have quit your jobs in a huff, time to adult.

  6. If you need more money, why don’t you go back to work full time? The kid is about 3 months now, I’m sure your partner can do well enough by themselves at home.

  7. I’m not sure I fully understand what you’re trying to communicate here, but a gofundme seems a bit outrageous for the situation. I know plenty of people here in Japan with 2 or 3 kids who are in-between jobs right now.

    For what it’s worth, if you want a gauge on how black Japanese companies handle maternal and paternal leave: neither my wife nor I was given it. In fact, the wife was forced to resign because of pregnancy. At the time we were too young, flustered, and exhausted to battle any of it.

  8. Good job for fighting them!

    For the first 180 days, you’ll get 67% of your average salary (using the last 6 months as a calculation) with the maximum possible >¥304,000 per month I.e if your 67% is >¥304,000 then you’ll only get ¥304,000

    After that it will drop down to 50% with a maximum possible of >Â¥230,000 per month.

    If it helps, it’s Worth adding that the money is tax free Japan side (so you don’t pay any income tax or resident tax on it). But you will still have to pay resident tax for 2022 (billed June 2023 to May 2024) and you don’t have to pay Shakai Hoken while on leave either.

    >American and Filipino

    It might not be tax free for the American, America side though.

    >finding remote work

    What visa are you on? If a work visa then you can’t work for an employer not domiciled to Japan (unless you get immigration permission, but that would still need an employer domiciled to Japan to sponsor your work visa). So that mostly leave you with employers domiciled to Japan. So you should probably outline your skill set and experience etc

    Edit: just noticed in another comment you’re not enrolled in Shakai Hoken. If so then you will need to keep paying national pension and national health insurance, unless you apply for exemptions (as your municipality office about that). Also your new born will also need to be enrolled in national health insurance too

    Edit2: hang on after reading your other replies, are you actually still employed? Your replies sound more like you’re getting unemployment money from hello work, not childcare leave money. If so, legalities a side of the amount of labor standards laws and labor contract laws your shitty employer broke here, you should get it in writing that they will take you back. Also if you’re on a work visa then you need to notify immigration with 14 days after the day your employment ended

  9. ‘Other ideas would be fine’

    Yeah, get a job.

    I mean seriously, you should have thought this through a little more. One would assume that having two teachers go on leave at the same time would be difficult for a small school. But you forced the issue…

    If you go legal it will likely take a long time to see any resolution, and would you ever want to work at a place you were suing/taking legal action against?

    Is your partner receiving payments from hello work from their termination? Even if it was resignation you can still get support if it’s been 3 months since said resignation.

    (No clue if hello work support conflicts with maternity leave)

  10. do any of you read any simple japanese. As some other commentator kindly left the reference links, have you browsed it through?

    I don’t get what you are trying to fight. You both aren’t fired, parenthood support wasn’t paid for 3 months due to whatever reason and you are trying to sue your company? You begged for a leave and they let you, they had to find someone to fill in the hole to keep the school running.
    Try 法テラス for legal support if you can read.

    And put your gofundme here on the post so we can pay you in respect

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