Is it normal for a contract employee in academia (2nd year) to not have a paid day-off?

12 comments

1. Sick Leave exists. They want the 診断書 so you don’t lose out on money, I assume.

   Lack of paid leave is weird, but those are things you should have checked before signing the contract…

2. If it’s from something that’s a bit more serious, you’d get a doctors note and go through the Japanese pain of filling out and stamping a million papers to get given 66% of your wage for those days off. They usually request you to use “holidays” instead as there is no paid sick leave in Japan. Usually they ask you use this so it doesnt impact things such as bonuses etc

3. You may need to clarify if a) you are full time or b) part time

   From there you need to know if there is any PTO for people in your position (most universities use a standard contract for each type of position which you need to go look up somewhere). Note: as you are a contract assistant Prof, often you will have less benefits than a tenure track person.

4. I think even as a part timer, your paid days off would start kicking in after 6 months.

   Ask about your 年休.

5. No, it is also illegal as far as I understand.

6. `診断書` is a good sign. the bureaucracy is working.

   It’s common not to gain any vacation days until new year or N months in the position.

   And, not there’s no real sick leave (except major, long-term illness).

7. Not an assistant professor, but I’m a post-doc in a public university, and we get the usual 10 days++ PTO every year but no specialized sick leaves. If we get sick, they’ll take it out of our PTOs. Other friends of mine in the same line of work have the same arrangement as I do, so I find your arrangement to be strange…

8. As others explained, they probably want to give you a **paid** sick leave, hence asking for the 診断書.

   What do you mean no days off? By law you must get a minimum of 10 days off every year, and there are very harsh punishments for the employer if you don’t actually take at least 5 of these days.

   But nevermind the law, I never heard of any university in Japan giving less than 20 vacation days an year. Find another place to work, that university sounds terrible.

9. I can’t speak for a private uni, but contract workers in public unis definitely have PTO. That’s what we are told to use, rather than a dedicated sick day.

   I guess your situation is more akin to a private company, but it sounds very weird to have no PTO at all.

10. Not only are you legally allotted 10 days of PTO a year (starting 6 months after you begin working for that company), you’re actually required by law to take at least 5 of them.

    If they’re not allowing you a single day, that is incredibly illegal.

11. If you’re employed you have a legal right to take paid leave after 6 months. Doesn’t matter if you’re part-time or full-time. There was either a misunderstanding or they are breaking Japanese labor law in a very stupid way.

12. Are you an employee or a contractor?

    If you’re an employee you get a number of days paid leave starting at 6 months.

    If you’re a contractor you’re not covered under labor law and the rules are different.

    Be aware its almost impossible to be correctly classified as a contractor working as a teacher/academia. But you’ll need to take your employer to court to get yourself properly classified as an employee.