“Please submit this form at least 30 days prior to the requested date.”

While this is technically a “request” rather than a “demand“, it is still worded in such a way as to give the impression that “30 days prior” is a requirement for the holiday to be approved, rather than an arbitrary appeal that has no legal basis.

As we previously stated, your holidays are yours to do what you want with, as needed. (The General Union does, of course, always advocate common courtesy.)

On a similar note, some people may not be aware that – unlike some other countries – Japan does not have “paid sick leave“. The holidays allocated to you by the Labor Standards Act serve the (perhaps unfair) dual purpose of acting as paid holidays AND paid sick leave.

Some dispatch companies have been telling their workers that people who use a holiday due to illness MUST provide proof of that illness, with “a receipt for medicine from a drug store” or “an invoice from a clinic” being given as proof. If that proof is not given, they suggest, that day of sick leave will be considered an “unpaid absence”.

You DO NOT have to provide any evidence of “genuine illness” to use a holiday for sick leave. Don’t voluntarily submit personal information to your company if you don’t have to.

Please seek advice if your company is demanding proof of illness as a requirement of paid absence from work.

Remember your rights.