I work for a certain company with a big presence in Japan. Today, I received an email telling me that they expect me to reimburse them roughly ¥150,000. Seems to be for various insurances? So I decided to check my work laptop to see if any other emails were sent to me. Nothing. On top of that, after checking my laptop, I found out that I was reassigned to a different department. I had no notification of this at all and so I have no idea what work I’ll be doing or if it’s even in the same field (software engineering.) Is any of this okay at all? Is there any validity to the reimbursement? And can I be transferred like that without any sort of notification? Just wanted to ask here and see if anyone could offer any advice.
Edit: I should add that I am worried that they are trying to strongarm people into quitting because apparently they over hired and can’t afford to fire people. However, I can’t afford to quit either. Just not sure how to proceed. I don’t want to work in a position where I won’t be doing the same work.
9 comments
Typical move by a numbskull HR, possibly being pressured by your line manager. You can be transferred without notification, as long as the job scope and salary don’t change, that will need your approval. In terms of the reimbursement, you are entitled to more details on this, although I’m going to assume it’s your health insurance/pension contributions, which the company has been paying for on your behalf.
And yes your gut feeling is most likely correct, whenever a company is making shady decisions and not explicitly informing you, they are working on something behind the scenes which is not in your favor.
If other people on parental leave are also moved to your new department, then it’s probably just an organizational policy and nothing to worry about.
Without knowing more about what the charge is for, it’s impossible to give you any advice.
I was requested to pay something to my company during medical leave. It was legit. I negotiated with them to have it deducted from my salary when I returned.
As for the transfer, that’s a little strange, but not disallowed AFAIK.
Even though you are on a leave with no salary, you are still expected to pay for pension/tax. Usually it is taken from your salary, but you have no salary so the company may have paid on your behalf and wants you to pay it back. Check with HR.
To give some different perspective:
Companies in Japan often don’t really plan with “absences” in mind, which means, everyone is expected to be there at all times outside of the main vacation times of Golden Week and Obon and such. Which means, there is no wiggle room in terms of capacity, no way to compensate if someone is not available for a prolonged time. Even deputy arrangements are not very common.
What could have happened is that they need someone to do your job while you are gone. To make that happen, your “headcount box” needs to be emptied, which means you need to be shifted to somewhere else. Where exactly isn’t super important, the box just needs to be empty, so it can be filled with someone else.
So it MIGHT be just a bureaucratic necessity to shift you to somewhere else. Might be temporary, might be permanent, who knows. You will only truly find out once you ask.
>reimburse them roughly ¥150,000. Seems to be for various insurances?
Can you elaborate more detail on this. When did you start your leave? You are kinda required to pay your part of Shakai Hoken for the first month of leave come pay day because it’s sort of for the previous month.
For example say you started your leave October 1st 2023. Then on the October 2023 pay cycle you’d still pay Shakai Hoken (your employer would likely send you a payment request for it). But then come November 2023 pay cycle you won’t be required to pay because you didn’t work more than 14 days in October 2023.
If your company usually pays your municipal tax on your behalf, you have to pay them back while on leave. If you are having trouble paying it, they may be willing to advance you the money and you can pay it back when you are back at work.
As others have said better, you are exempted from paying shakai hoken and nenkin on parental/childcare leave, but not juminzei. You shud confirm whats that 150k to Hr for clearance. It might be your obligation from the prev month when you’re still working.
I had experienced both medical/stress leave and childcare leave and my company have been communicative on any change upon my employment/assignment, and any change usually noted by them giving me some kind of small certificate as a written proof (e.g change of dept, or even just the current dept’s name, change of shain level to Xkyuu etc and the day the change applies) via post. So I think you can be transferred while on leave but your company shud have give some proper notice.
You wont know what you’ll be doing in the new dept until you come back to work, but if its sth far from your skill and background and the transfer is done while you’re on childcare leave there’s high chance it’s harassment and a way to kick you out softly. I think it wouldnt hurt to contact your superior or colleague to ask whats happening to your position.
It’s illegal. Now you could talk to a lawyer first if you truly want your position. I did and won.