One in three workers are said to be having some kind of illness. To support such workers and deal with aging of the workforce, companies face an increasing need to establish the workplace where employees can continue working, while receiving treatment for diseases or managing their health conditions. This article explain important points on supporting workers to find a balance between recovery from illness and work.
[1] Support for workers recovering from illness
According to the Overview of Survey on Industrial Safety and Health (actual condition survey) for 2021 by the Labor Ministry, 41.1% of the companies had measures to support employees who have personal injury or illness (cancer, diabetes, etc.) and require special considerations to continue working.
Asked about details of the measures, 91.1% said, “consideration of measures allowing employees to go to hospital or other measures according to their conditions (flexible work hours and job assignments, etc.)” and 36.0% had “systems to support employees’ recovery from illness while working (programs of leave additional to annual paid holidays, working systems, etc.) The percentage of companies who cited “clarification of consultation desk, etc.” was 32.1%.
[2] Options of working and leave systems
As described above, many companies have flexible working systems or special leave to support workers facing health problems. Following are specific measures companies can take.
Working hour programs
[Staggered working hours]
By adopting staggered working hours, employees can change their arrival and leaving times to reduce physical burden of going to hospital or commuting. Since standard working hours do not change in this system, unlike short working hours, monthly salaries of employees who use the system will not be affected.
[Short working hours]
A system to reduce working hours for employees difficult to work full time.
[Teleworking]
A system to allow employees to work at home to ease burden of commutation.
Leave programs
[Hourly paid leave system]
As a basic rule, annual leave must be taken in units of whole days, but companies may allow workers to take leave in hourly units up to an amount equal to five days in a year by signing a labor-management agreement. With this system, workers become able to take hourly paid leave to go to hospitals, etc.
[Accumulated annual paid leave]
Workers lose the right to claim annual paid leave after two years from the date it is granted. The accumulated annual paid leave system is a discretionary measure that companies may take. In this system, expired paid leave is accumulated to allow workers to use it when they become sick and need to receive treatment at hospitals, etc.
[Sickness leave]
A discretionary system to allow employees to take leave when they need to receive treatment by visiting or staying in a hospital.
To introduce these programs, it is important to provide training for management staff to help understand the system. Since it normally takes time to officially start these programs, please consider necessary steps in good time.
Reference
Labour Ministry “Receiving treatment while working”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000115267.html
Overview of Survey on Industrial Safety and Health (actual condition survey)
