Not Getting National Holidays off at Work – Inquiry

Thanks in advance for any info that can be provided. I work full-time, contract (1 year at a time) and the school I work at often is open on national holidays. For example, on September 18, we are open and I am expected to come in and work as if it were a regular day.

My question is, and since the labor laws in English when searching went over my head, is my employer required to provide me with a “day in lieu” if I work a national holiday? I know Saturday, September 23 is also a holiday, but I don’t work Saturdays. Since my boss hasn’t mentioned anything, I wanted to bring it up with him but wanted to have some knowledge of the labor laws in case I get push back. If I am not entitled to extra compensation or a day in lieu then that’s the end of it but if I am, I wanted to know where in the labor standards it talks about it. Every time I do ask questions about the work situations, he always brings up the labor code so I thought I would ask before talking to him about it.

Our school is small and has less than 10 employees.

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Thank you.

10 comments
  1. Labor law in Japan is written in Japanese. (shocking!!!) English translations are not submittable in court. Yes, this applies to the constitution too. For the constitution they use the current translation which changes more frequently than you might think.

    National holidays are not fully guaranteed. Check your contract. They can also dictate about half of your PTO so if everyone else os working, you are too.

  2. Depends on your contract and some business have their own calendar. Factories are a good example, they work almost all national holidays.

    This is exactly the type of inquiry one must have before signing a contract. Good luck!

  3. Even in the places that do give national holidays, you’re not going to get something in lieu of a day you didn’t work to begin with.

  4. Sounds like you’re a contractor, in that case you might not get them along with other shady practices.

  5. There are certain stipulations regarding break times you need to receive and your ability to use the restroom while on the clock, which I believe affect every employer. However, since your employer has less than 10 employees, they are not even obligated to report to the Department of Labour about their working stipulations.

  6. Depends on your contract. In mine, for exampl, the company decides how many days off we have each month (usually 8) and if there is a national holiday on a day from Monday to Friday (and the kindergarten is closed) and that makes it 9 days off that month, they take 1 day’s worth from my salary or 1 day of paid leave. Or we can work a Saturday to compensate. There is no alternative day off received. It can be very different for other contracts.

  7. Nope there’s nothing in the labor law saying that you must get compensation for working on a national holiday

  8. National holidays are up to your employer if they’re a day off or not. They’re definitely not guaranteed. You need to read your contract/check your work calander to see if there are any days outside of your normal days off that are also time off.

    Also check your PTO. If you are full-time employee you get 10 days of PTO after 6 months of employment. BUT a company can take up to 5 of those 10 days and use them as predetermined vacation days throughout the year. If they did so, it should be stated in your contract.

    Companies here ESPECIALLY English schools will literally lie to your face about work requirements, benefits, hours, time off, etc. READ your contracts, and read up on your rights.

  9. It all depends on your contract. My old job we still worked on national holidays we just started earlier shifts then usual. With my current job we get the national holidays off but they want us to make up the time usually we lose a normal day off and have to come in to make up the time or use our paid leave to get the day off back.

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