[Answer]
By law, wages should be paid directly to workers themselves in cash, in
full, at least once a month on a fixed date. Statutory deductions for taxes
and social insurance premiums shall be withheld from the full payment,
along with other non-statutory deductions based on labor-management agreements,
such as rent for company housing.
If
your company is continuing its business operations yet hasn’t paid your wages,
check the reasons for its non-payment and report the case to the local Labor
Standards Inspection Office in the area where your employer is located, to seek
administrative guidance based on their authority. You can get advice in foreign
languages at the following offices in Osaka.
＊Osaka Labor Bureau (English, Chinese and Portugal)
＊Osaka Prefectural General Labor Office (English and Chinese) Appointment
is necessary if interpreter is required.
If
your non-payment of wages is the result of your employer’s bankruptcy, however,
you need to follow different procedures from the above. First, you need to know
how much each worker is owned by your former employer. A bankrupt company
usually has a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, who takes care of liquidation
procedures for the company. During the liquidation, a trustee sells all the
assets owned by the troubled company and distributes the proceeds to cover
mortgage and other fully-secured loans, and taxes. If there is any leftover, wages
will be paid to workers. As for amount receivable, you should notify the
trustee of the amount of unpaid wages. In practice, however, it is almost
impossible to recover unpaid wages from a bankrupt company. As a measure to bail
out such workers whose employer has gone into de jure bankruptcy (or in the case
of small- and medium-sized companies, de facto bankruptcy), there is a government
system to compensate payment of unpaid wages based on the “Security of Wage
Payment Law” designed to ensure payment of wages for workers. Under this
system, the Japan Labor and Welfare
Organization compensates the unpaid wages up to a certain amount
for workers who had to retire after their employer had gone bankrupt and failed
to pay them due wages.
Workers
eligible to receive payments from the organization are:
1) Employees of a company covered by the Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance
who have been laid off when the company went bankrupt and hasn’t been paid
wages. The company in question has to have been in operation for one year
or longer before its bankruptcy. This system does not apply if the total
of unpaid wages is less than 20,000 yen.
2) Employees who have retired from the failed company during the two-year
period starting from six months prior to the day when the bankruptcy was
filed with the court, or the day for application as de fact bankruptcy
with the Labor Standards Inspection Office until one and a half years after
the day of the bankruptcy.
Foreign
workers, part-timers and short-term workers are also covered by the compensation
scheme. The organization pays 80% of the total amount of the money due workers including
regular salary and retirement allowance for up to six months. (Bonuses are not
covered.) The maximum amount covered by the law is fixed. For more information
on Replacement Payment of Unpaid Wages, you can contact the competent Labor
Standards Inspection Office or a consultation section of the Japan Labor and
Welfare Organization (044-556-9881).