Measures for dealing with COVID-19　#4 – Non-Work Allowance 2 –

After the Prime Minister’s Press Conference on February 28 the Ministry of Health Welfare and Labor renewed the instructions for dealing with COVID-19. Companies are all very interested in what is being said, but at this time (and it will follow) there was no additional comments on the need to provide compensation when on Leave.
We have had multiple questions from our clients so let me summarize below:
The full details are in the link below (Japanese Only)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/kenkou_iryou/dengue_fever_qa_00007.html#Q4-3

1. An Employee is infected with COVID-19
COVID-19 is a designated infectious disease, and as such only when the Prefectural government insists on limitations with regards to work, are Companies actually exempt from paying the Non-Work Allowance.

２．When Companies place workers on leave for other than the reason above, then the Company are responsible for paying the Non-Work Allowance.
The following are examples of when the Company would NOT be exempt from paying the Non-Work Allowance.
①An Employee has a fever and to prevent infection is suspended at home
②When it becomes known that a member of the Employee’s family (living in the same home) has a fever and to prevent infection is suspended at home
③Schools are cancelled and in order for an Employee to stay home and care for their children they are placed on leave

In cases of taking leave for the above, when an Employee chooses not to use their annual paid leave, the leave would be unpaid and salary deductions could proceed.
The current attitude of the government in the situations above, is to ask that Companies provide environments that make it easy for Employees to be able to take leave. Providing Special (paid too!!!) leave is a typical approach, however they are asking Companies to individually bear the cost of these paid leaves, and create an environment that allows for leave to be taken.
As of March 1, there are no updates regarding the Corporate subsidies that are expected.

3. Associated with 2 above, the Ministry has reminded us of utilising the Modified Annual Working Hours System. Depending on the individual situations this is definitely worth considering and hence please see some examples to follow:
An example, that school is cancelled and in order to care for the children, the employee takes leave, comes to work late and leaves early, such that in a month they have not worked the required number of days or hours. And then the other side, that in order to back up the employee who needs time, another employee has worked longer hours and additional days than is required in a month. Hence the salary not paid to the employee who has not worked the required days and hours are used to compensate the employee who has worked the additional time. This is the modified working hours system.
A labour-management agreement must be executed and this shall be for a period of longer than one month, where the average weekly working hours is 40 hours, and then over the period of a month the daily working hours and working days can be adjusted.
For Companies that do not have this system you may be thinking “How????”, but perhaps for the two months of March and April as special precautions during the COVID-19 period, this could be the irregular time and then the adjustments could be made during the remaining 10 months. It may sound some what cumbersome but we are sure there are Companies who could be utilising this system. Hence for those who might be interested in considering, we at PMP have significant implementation experience and are very able to consult with you individually.

4. Lastly the Employment Adjustment Subsidies mentioned at the Prime Minister’s February 28 Press Conference. The Ministry released the below (Japanese only) on February 19.
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/koyou/kyufukin/pageL07.html

This is a subsidy that can be retroactive to January 24, and is to subsidise the Non-Work Allowance. It is half for large organizations, two thirds for small and medium size organizations, in a one year period to a maximum of 100 days. It is mainly for those companies with more than 10% of all their transactions being business with China or Chinese, who have been forced to curtail corporate activities or experienced a decrease in Sales due to COVID-19.