A testimonial from union member Leslie

One thing my grandmother taught me was to always be prepared for what’s ahead. Taking her advice when I joined Interac was the best thing I could have done.

When I first started working for Interac, I felt that I was going to be in Japan for the long-term. I had a steady boyfriend, and we were leaning towards marriage, so I decided to look into the laws surrounding maternity leave rights in Japan. I found out that I would not only be guaranteed time off, but it could be paid if I was enrolled for over 2 years in Shakai Hoken, as this was the enrolment criteria at that time. This seemed like an easy enough thing to do as clearly, I was entitled to it by working from 8:15-4:15, 5 days a week.

That is when I came up against the silliest of ideas – According to my employer, I was actually working less than 29.5 hours a week, so I would not be eligible. I knew this was wrong. How can 8 hours a day, 5 days a week equal 29.5 hours? I contacted the union, and they helped me get a bump in working hours through doing projects for Interac.  This allowed me to be enrolled. I now felt confident that if I were to get pregnant in the future, I would be able to take time off without having to worry too much about finances.

A few years later, when I was fully eligible for paid maternity and child raising leave (note: child raising leave is based on enrolment in employment insurance and the enrolment criteria even pre-2016 was 20 hours per week), I became pregnant and thought that things would go well. However, being the first foreign employee at Interac to take advantage of my rights, I caused quite a bit of chaos and panic. Interac didn’t want to get involved with organising my paperwork to ensure my payments and instructed me to deal with Hello Work myself. Hello Work told me that I would need to take a 2 hour trip by bullet train and local trains at my expense to apply for my benefits if my employer was unable to file on my behalf. However, by law, my employer was under obligation to file for me and with an amazing amount of support from the union, many long painful phone calls, and buckets of hormonally imbalanced tears, I finally was able to get what I deserved. I was able to receive my paid maternity (note: provided through Shakai Hoken) and child-raising (note: provided through Employment Insurance) leave for 10 months before returning to work. Without the union, I don’t know if I would have been able to receive the benefits that I clearly was entitled to and am grateful for the kindness they extended in my time of need.

So, my advice is to know the law and don’t be afraid to push back if your employer is not compliant. You never know when you may need the help of Shakai Hoken!