Masako Suzuki

For Masako Suzuki's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

| May 28, 2013

When can you fight a job transfer?

A foreign reader writes: “My husband is working for a company that has branches in Shinagawa, Narita and Ibaraki. He used to work at the Shinagawa branch, and then he was forced to move to the Narita branch. “The owner of the company only ...

| Sep 11, 2012

Three steps to judging whether a disciplinary measure is legal

An English teacher writes: “Recently, my company placed me on a three-month suspension from work, until five days before my fixed-period employment contract expires. As I am still employed, I cannot claim unemployment benefits, and this lengthy period makes it almost financially prohibitive to ...

| Feb 14, 2012

Firms have few grounds to refuse staff paid leave

Reader KA writes: “In a recent Lifelines column (“All employees in Japan are entitled to paid leave, period,” Dec. 13) it was stated that all employees have the legal right to take paid vacation providing they meet certain basic criteria. Whilst that is legally ...

| Oct 4, 2011

Unfair dismissal: the legal options

Reader MB was recently fired from a private language school he’d been working at for five years. “No reason was given when this was made known to me — I was, however, asked to teach the remaining four to six weeks of the current ...