Not Giving Employee Leave, Train Operator Punished with Compensation of IDR 61 Million

Dream - Train operators in Japan, Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) are required to pay compensation of 540,000 yen or IDR 61.6 million for not providing leave to six of their employees.

The decision is based on the order of the Tokyo District Court. One of the employees who filed the lawsuit is the Tokaido Shinkansen train operator named Kazuki Kinoshita.

He appreciates the court's decision and states that the decision is very important for workers.

"This decision once again emphasizes the importance of workers' rights to take paid annual leave," said Kazuki, quoted from Asahi Shimbun, Thursday, April 6, 2023.

JR Tokai filed an appeal against the decision. However, with the court's decision, the company is said to have failed to fulfill its obligations as stipulated in the employment contract related to the paid annual leave system. 

The Labor Standards Act states that employers must provide paid annual leave to employees on the day they want to take it. 

Then the employer can change their employees' holidays only if it disrupts normal business operations.

However, the company did not decide whether employees could actually take the paid leave they requested until five days before the requested day.

In the trial, JR Tokai also argued that they had no choice but to operate the train scheduling system because of the demand on that day.

It was also revealed in the trial that this Japanese train operator always lacked human resources (HR) in fiscal years 2015 and 2016. 

The company claimed this fact as the reason why it is difficult to provide leave for the six employees because it would impact and harm train operations. However, the court rejected this claim. 

According to the decision, employees are required by the company's labor regulations and other regulations to submit leave requests for the following month on the 20th of each month. (x)