October was the “period for encouraging workers to take annual paid leave,” designated by the Labour Ministry. The guideline of measures for aging society, approved by the Cabinet on May 29, 2020, sets the target of annual leave usage rate at 70% to be achieved by 2025. However, the 2021 Work Condition Comprehensive Survey shows the rate stood significantly below the target at 56.6%. This article explains about the system to give workers scheduled annual paid leave, one of the government measures to improve the annual leave usage rate, and important points about managing the system.
[1] Methods of scheduled annual leave
Scheduled annual leave is a system to make employees take leave for the number of annual leave days minus five on the days designated by the company. The system, which requires a labor-management agreement, can be implemented by the following methods.
1. Simultaneous leave by closing the entire company or workplace
This method can be used in the case the company can stop the operation and allow workers to take leave for a certain period, such as in a manufacturing division.
2. Rotating leave among teams and groups
This method is useful for a workplace where increasing the number of regular holidays is difficult, such as distribution or service departments.
3. Individual leave according to an annual leave calendar
Leave days are designated according to the employees’ preference, such as granting leave on their birthdays, anniversaries, etc., in addition to summer vacation, year-end and new-year holiday and the Golden Week holiday.
Companies may decide which method to use. Detailed method must be described in the labor-management agreement.
[2] Key points to scheduled annual paid leave system
In using scheduled annual leave system, the company must identify applicable employees. It is also important to take measures for employees who are given a small number of leave days or have not been granted paid leave yet.
-Decision of applicable employees
For some employees, designated annual leave days might come during their maternity/paternity/childcare leave or past their mandatory retirement date. Since employees applicable to the scheduled annual leave system can be defined by the labor-management agreement, it is important to exclude such employees in advance.
-Measures for employees granted a small number of leave days or not entitled to paid leave
In the case annual paid leave is scheduled across the board in a company or workplace as in [1]-1, it is possible that some of the employees are not entitled to paid leave at that timing. However, companies are not allowed to treat such employees’ absence during across-the-board scheduled leave as unpaid leave. As a solution, companies may grant them special paid leave or pay a leave allowance of at least 60% of their average wages.
The introduction of scheduled paid leave is expected to increase the usage of annual paid leave. It is also aimed to encourage companies to fulfil their responsibility of making employees entitled to ten or more days of annual leave take at least five days of paid leave in a year. Meanwhile, please note that the system might trigger complaints from employees who wish to decide when to take annual leave on their own. In introducing the system, it is desirable to have a thorough labor-management discussion and start by giving one or two days of scheduled leave.
MHLW: “October is a encouragement period of annual paid leave”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_28253.html
MHLW: Work/leave improvement portal site
https://work-holiday.mhlw.go.jp/kyuuka-sokushin/jigyousya.html
MHLW: 2021 Work Condition Comprehensive Survey Result
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/jikan/syurou/21/index.html
*The information is based on laws and regulations as of the date this article.
