An Example of Questions recently submitted to Employment Lawyer

Q.1 I am a contract employee i.e on a annual contract. I have heard rumours that when this years renewal comes us they will try to force a a pay cut. I assume as I am on a annual contract there is nothing I can do.? i.e I can choose to accept the new terms or not ?

A.1 When a company terminate an employment contract before it expires,the court requires the company to have proper reasons to justy the
termination.Lack of ability for work and a lot of absence of work without notification
are the examples of the proper reasons.However, when the contract expires, each party is not obliged to enter into
the new contract next year; therefore, you might have to accept the new termif the company would not enter into the new contract unless you accept the new term. The court sometimes requires a company to have the proper reasons to refuse to renew the contract when it expires; however, the proper reasons justifying the non-renewal can be weaker reasons compared to the proper reasons justifying the termination of contract before it expires.

Q.2 I have a 30 days termination clause in my contract, does that mean they also have to give me 30 days before the renewal as well ?
Or can they just let it lapse and not say anything about renewal?

A.2 The labour law requires a company to notify at least 30 days in advance to terminate an employment contract before it expires.
On the other hand, it is not mandatory to notify the termination of the contract in advance when the contract expires; however, the labour bureau
"encourage" a company to notify at least 30 days in advance. If the company does not notify in advance, you may use the lack of notification as one of the examples that the company does not have the proper reason (mentioned in the answer of question (1)) of non-renewal;however, only one example is not sufficient to have the court deny the non-renewal of the contract.

Q.3 I have specialized skill set and was brought on for that. They are slowly trying to put me in other groups where my skill set is not so noticable
is this allowed?

A.3 If you can prove that the company is putting you in other group where your skill set is not so noticeable in order to say that your skill set is
not good enough to renew the contract when it expires, it might be considered as the example that the company does not have proper reasons to
refuse the renewal of the contract.However, the company may create some reasons which look proper; for example,the company might insist that
volume of work for type of expert. is decreasing.

Q.4 How long can I stay in Japan (my visa expires in 2010 (without work)

A.4 The immigration law states that they reserve a right to cancel your work visa when they find you have not worked for more than three months
without proper reasons.

However
(1) It is practically impossible for the immigration office to find you are not working until your visa expires;
(2) You are allowed to look for a new work and the immigration office is not likely to consider that you are
not working "without proper reasons" when you make efforts to find a new work.

Thus, practically, you can stay until your visa expires, and you can renew your visa if you can find a new work before your visa expires.