Scant legal justification for unpaid overtime

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“I’ve been working in Japan for the past few years and lately, because of the slow pace of business, our company has let go of some of our staff. As a result, we have to split the workload of the recent layoffs. Our boss keeps telling us to punch in our timecards for regular hours and not to do any overtime, but I cannot do all of my work within a regular eight-hour day, and I find myself routinely doing overtime. I am not getting paid for any of my extra work, and I was wondering what sort of steps I could take to get compensation.”

From what you’ve told us it sounds like you may have a case against your employer. Forcing employees to work overtime without compensation is illegal and can carry serious penalties for your employer.

In principle, a work week is supposed to total 40 hours, divided into eight hours per day. Any work beyond this limit is only possible with prior agreement between the employer and employees, and is subject to overtime payment.

Certain contracts include a clause stating that the salary includes any possible overtime hours or a specified “overtime allowance.” While the former is illegal, the latter is not illegal per se. However, employees are entitled to claim any difference between the overtime allowance and what the overtime wage for the actual hours would have been using the premiums mentioned above. Essentially, with or without an “overtime allowance clause,” the employee is entitled to the same overtime wages.

If overtime work is done with the understanding of the employer but without an explicit request, the employee can still file a request for unpaid overtime wages.

When there is unpaid overtime, an employee can report it to the relevant labor standards bureau, which will [may] conduct an investigation and [may] either suggest or request payment if a violation is found.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110809at.html

Temp staffer wins maternity leave, via union

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When female nonregular workers become pregnant, employers often refuse to renew their contracts. However, a Japanese-Brazilian woman in the Tokai region stood up and joined a local labor union to protest the practice.

“Because I have been working for the factory for a long time, I thought it was unacceptable that the company would not allow my child-care leave,” [Michelle Rosa Egidio, 35] recalled.

Egidio first came to Japan at the age of 19, registering at a temporary staffing agency. But for the past 14 years, she has been “on dispatch” to a printer factory in Mie.

Under the Temporary Staffing Services Law, manufacturers are allowed to hire temporary help for up to three years. After that, companies have to directly hire the worker if they want the person to stay on.

But according to the General Workers Union Mie Prefecture, which Egidio belongs to, her staffing agency and the factory masked her dispatch as contract work, which allows her to work longer than three years without the obligation to hire her directly.

When her three-year contract expired last July, the company hired her as a contract worker. Immediately after that, however, she found she was pregnant.

The law says that child-care leave can only be granted to workers who have been employed for more than a year.

On March 22, when the union was still bargaining with the company on her behalf, she gave birth to a girl.

As a result, the company effectively admitted she had been working there for a long time and agreed to offer paid and unpaid leave until the end of June, when she would have the right to take child-care leave from July through next March 21.

In Japan, where 70 percent of regular and nonregular female workers quit their jobs when having children, it is difficult for temp workers, whose contracts are renewed on a short-term basis and can be easily replaced, to obtain maternity and child-care leave, said Shigeru Wakita, professor of labor law at Ryukoku University.

“Since more than half of female workers are nonregular workers, it is necessary to create an environment where they can (work and) bring up children to tackle the falling birthrate,” said Wakita, chairman of the national forum for winning rights for nonregular workers.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110806cc.html

Nichii Gakkan Company to Launch Takeover Bid for Shares of Gaba Corporation

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Nichii Gakkan Company announced that it has decided to launch a takeover bid for shares of Gaba Corporation. Nichii Gakkan Company intends to purchase 50,497 shares of Gaba Corporation at the price of JPY 200,000 per share during the period from August 8, 2011 to September 21, 2011. If Nichii Gakkan Company purchased as many shares of Gaba Corporation, it will hold 100% voting rights in Gaba Corporation. However, if Nichii Gakkan Company were not able to purchase at least 26,390 shares of Corporation, the takeover bid will be cancelled. Based on the result of the takeover bid, Gaba Corporation may be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/2133.T/key-developments/article/2378201

Nichii Gakkan To Launch Tender Offer For Gaba

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Nichii Gakkan Co. said Friday it will begin a tender offer to purchase shares of Gaba Corp., an operator of English-language conversation classes, in a move to bolster its education business.

Nichii plans to spend up to 10 billion yen to make Gaba a wholly owned subsidiary.

The offer price is 200,000 yen per share, a 53% premium over Friday’s close.

Gaba operates classes at 36 locations in the nation’s three major metropolitan areas. The bulk of its students are corporate employees. The firm posted 7.75 billion yen in sales and 596 million yen in net profit for the year ended December 2010.

Even though [Nichii’s] offerings have expanded beyond its mainstay preparatory courses for medical and nursing licenses, it is still struggling. The firm expects the Gaba brand to help it win contracts for corporate English training and to expand its online offerings.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110805D0508N04.htm

Once settled in, chances are you’ll have to pay to stay

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In Japan, property rental renewal fees can cost around one month’s rent per year. The question is: What is it tenants are paying for?

On July 15, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that it is legal for property owners to demand supplemental fees when tenants renew their rental agreements. The ruling was made in conjunction with three lawsuits that tenants had brought against their landlords claiming that koshinryō should be considered invalid in accordance with the Consumer Contracts Law. In all three cases the tenants had paid the renewal fees and were suing to get the money back. The landlords argued that the renewal fees were stipulated in the rental agreements the tenants signed.

The Osaka High Court previously agreed with the plaintiffs in two of the cases, ruling that the renewal fees did violate the Consumer Contract Law, which states that a contract can be voided if its conditions are deemed inherently disadvantageous to the consumer. The Supreme Court, however, found that a renewal fee is reasonable “unless it is too high in comparison with rent or rental agreement periods.” The consumers in these cases, it said, did not suffer any damage.

Those who have had success in fighting these fees usually received assistance from nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations. The Asahi Shimbun recently reported the case of a 60-year-old man in Chiba Prefecture who refused to pay his renewal fee (as did his guarantor) and took his complaint to the prefectural tenants union, which negotiated with the landlord. The union cited the Rental Property Law, which states that a rental agreement is automatically renewed if the tenant wishes to stay there and that a tenant cannot be evicted without reason. Eventually, the landlord waived the fee.

Landlords, however, are on the defensive. Though they claimed victory, it’s a tenants’ market. In 2008, the Ministry for Internal Affairs reported the nationwide vacancy rate for rental properties at 23 percent (as reference, Tokyo’s was 16 percent) and rising. Rental management companies increasingly provide greater transparency in rental agreements and fewer landlords are asking for gift money so as to attract potential tenants. Some realtors now advertise properties with the “adjusted” monthly rent, meaning the monthly rent plus the added fees pro-rated on a monthly basis. It doesn’t make those fees any less arbitrary, but at least it makes the transaction more open.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20110802ht.html

10% of foreign residents have left disaster-hit prefectures

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The number of foreign residents in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures [the hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster] dropped 10.5 percent to 30,092 between the end of December and the end of March, according to the Justice Ministry.

The number of foreigners declined 1.9 percent nationwide during the same period.

“Many foreigners returned to their countries after the disaster and have not returned to Japan as they are concerned about the nuclear crisis” at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, an official in the ministry’s Immigration Bureau said.

The number of foreign residents also decreased by 944 in the three prefectures between the end of March and the end of June.

Foreign trainees at companies and other entities at the end of June decreased by 67.9 percent in Miyagi Prefecture from the end of December. The figure dropped 18.5 percent in Iwate and 19.2 percent in Fukushima.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110730x2.html

Bye-bye to the gaijin card, welcome to the Juki Net in ’12

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According to the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Justice and immigration lawyers, the new law will bring about a few major changes.

First of all, the alien registration card (soon to become the “residence card”) will no longer be issued at the local level. From July of next year, the Ministry of Justice will take over responsibility for the residence card.

After the law goes into effect, new arrivals with a valid medium- or long-term visa will receive a residence card at their port of entry. In cases where the port authorities do not have the means to do this — presumably at smaller air and sea ports rather than the main regional hubs — the card will be mailed to you.

Current medium- and long-term residents in Japan will receive the new card when they next apply for a visa extension from July 2012 (permanent residents must apply for the card by July 2015).

The new law will essentially combine the systems for Japanese and non-Japanese under the Juki Net system, a nationwide registry established in 2002 that includes basic information about all citizens. Very controversial, it has been the subject of numerous lawsuits filed by plaintiffs across the country over privacy concerns. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Juki Net does not infringe on the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution.

When the new law comes into force, non-Japanese will be put into this national system, which is why the residence card will be issued directly by the Immigration Bureau rather than local government.

Procedures for updating details on the residence card will also change when the new law goes into effect. Currently your local government office handles most personal information changes, but under the new law nearly all notifications will need to be made at your nearest immigration office.

For example, changes of name or nationality, employer or school information, and family relations (e.g., separation, divorce, death of spouse) will all be handled by the Immigration Bureau. Address registration and changes will still be handled by city hall.

Additionally, if your residence card is lost, damaged or stolen, rather than going to city hall, you will need to visit the immigration office for re-issuance. The time frame in which you have to do so, however, will remain the same: 14 days.

The new system will extend the maximum period of stay from three years to five.

Under the new law, medium-to-long-term residents with a valid passport and residence card will no longer need to apply for a re-entry permit if they leave and return to Japan within one year.

Additionally, the validity term of the re-entry permit for those who plan to be away for longer than 12 months will be extended from three to five years.

Items on the new residence card will no longer include the name of the householder, place of birth, passport number, occupation, and employer’s name and location.

To find more information on the upcoming changes (in English), visit www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/newimmiact/newimmiact_english.html and www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact/pdf/leaflet_english.pdf

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110712at.html

104 Indonesian nurses, caregivers to depart for Japan

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A total of 104 Indonesian nurses and caregivers are to depart for Japan on Monday despite a still low number of foreign workers in Japan who have passed local examinations for health professionals since the program started in 2008.

Wearing batik clothes and able to speak some Japanese, the group attended a pre-departure ceremony at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Indonesia hours before flying to Osaka or Tokyo.

“As the length of Japanese language training has been increased from six months at the beginning, and now to nine months, and to 12 months by next year, we all hope more candidates can pass the local examinations,” Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar said.

He added there have been only 17 Indonesians who have passed the examinations in Japan to qualify as professional nurses.

The new staff will augment their three months of Japanese language training in Indonesia with another six months in Japan.

The number of Indonesians now in Japan under the program is 686, while 64 nurse candidates have returned home after failing in the test, which is in Japanese, and deciding not to have another try.

Besides Indonesia, the Philippines has also sent health professionals to Japan under a similar program.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110705p2g00m0dm003000c.html