A government panel has decided to try to amend the child and nursing care law to enable employed people to care for family members, Labor Ministry officials said.
The ministry's council on women's and juvenile issues will submit a draft to revise the law on regulating workers' leave for child care and nursing during the ordinary Diet session that convenes next month.
In the draft bill, the ministry will urge firms to introduce a system under which people with preschool-age children can take time off when their children are injured or sick.
The council said the system will be a goal rather than a mandatory target for the time being, citing a ministry survey in fiscal 1999 that found only 8 percent of firms had a child-care leave system.
The current law only prohibits firms from firing workers who take such time off, but the council suggested the new legislation should ban other risks -- such as discrimination in promotion and job opportunities -- against employees who take such leave.
The current law requires companies to introduce a system to allow employees who have children under 1 year old to choose from among shorter working hours, flexible hours or child-care leave.
The council suggested that the system be extended to cover people with children aged up to 3 and that employees with children in that age bracket be allowed to refuse to work more than 24 hours of overtime a month.