From Non-Regular to Regular Employment: The Career Advancement Subsidy's Conversion Course for Employers

There are many kinds of subsidies, but this time I will discuss the Career Advancement Subsidy.

The Career Advancement Subsidy provides subsidies to employers that implement initiatives to promote the career advancement and other development of non-regular employees (including casual workers, part-time workers, dispatched workers, fixed-term contract workers, and indefinite-term employees who are not treated as regular employees).

The Career Advancement Subsidy has six core courses.

This time, I will discuss the most popular course, the Regular Employment Conversion Course.

Many companies create a path from non-regular employment to regular employment according to an employee's work performance. This is a subsidy those companies can use.

What Is the Regular Employment Conversion Course, a Subsidy You Can Use?

The Regular Employment Conversion Course is a course intended to promote career advancement by converting non-regular employees and others to a more stable form of employment (regular employment).

The number of eligible workers is capped at 10 people per business establishment per fiscal year (15 people from March 1, 2014 through March 31, 2016; 10 people for conversion to indefinite-term employment).

Payment Amounts Under the Regular Employment Conversion Course

Note: These are the amounts applicable where conversion took place between March 1, 2014 and March 31, 2016.

In addition, where the eligible person is a mother from a single-mother household, a father from a single-father household, or a dispatched worker hired directly, among other cases, there is an additional payment of ¥50,000 to ¥300,000.

Eligible Workers Under the Regular Employment Conversion Course

• Fixed-term workers, indefinite-term employees, and dispatched workers who have been employed by the eligible employer for a cumulative period of at least six months.
• Workers must not have been hired with a promise that they would later be employed as regular employees.
• Workers must not have been employed at the eligible employer's business establishment within the three years before the day preceding the conversion date.
• Fixed-term contract workers and others who have taken and completed the fixed-term practical training implemented by the eligible employer.

Eligible Employers Under the Regular Employment Conversion Course

• The employer must be an establishment covered by employment insurance. (Workers who meet the conditions for enrollment in social insurance must be enrolled.)
• The employer's work rules or equivalent must provide for a system to convert fixed-term workers and others into indefinite-term employees or regular employees.
• The employer must not have dismissed workers for reasons attributable to the employer (including encouraging resignation) during the six months before or after the day before hiring or the conversion date.
• In the case of conversion to indefinite-term employment, the employer must raise the basic salary by at least 5% over that before conversion.
• The employer must have submitted a Career Up Plan within the deadline.

Note: The above are the principal points; there are other conditions as well.

If you hire someone from the outset as a regular employee or an indefinite-term employee, it can be extremely difficult and time-consuming to have that person leave for reasons attributable to the company, and various risks can arise, such as disputes with the worker.

If your company wants to see how someone works, hire them on a fixed-term contract and make use of this kind of subsidy.

There are many talented people whose abilities go untapped for one reason or another. If your small or medium-sized business faces a labor shortage, why not use the Regular Employment Conversion Course to give that hidden talent a chance?