Reason for proposal and main contents

As stable income is an important factor in enabling victims of domestic violence to escape such violence, the importance of enabling victims who are employed to take work leave in order to attend investigations by law-enforcement agencies, or to receive medical treatment without fear of losing their jobs, has been widely emphasized.

However, the current law only provides that the employers of victims of domestic violence should not penalize the victim with dismissal in connection with a domestic violence offense, but there exist no active protective actions to guarantee the job security of victims of domestic violence.

For your reference, the U.S., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand provide victims of domestic violence with a separate leave that can be used for causes related to domestic violence.

The proposed amendment will allow victims of domestic violence to take paid leave for causes related to domestic violence, and will also allow the state to support the cost of paid leave (Newly established Article 4-5 (2) of the draft).