Woman sacked for breaking rule by conceiving `before her turn`

A female employee in Japan was sacked and reprimanded by her boss for selfishly breaking the rule by getting pregnant before her turn, a media report said.

New Delhi: Each country has certain rules and regulations which citizens have to follow but sometimes the rules may appear too bizarre to abide by. One such unusual case happened in Japan where a female employee was sacked and reprimanded by her boss for selfishly breaking the rule and getting pregnant before her turn, a media report said.

According to a report in The Telegraph, the woman was employed at a private childcare centre in Aichi prefecture, north Japan when she found out she was pregnant. But unfortunately for her, the timing clashed with 'shifts' drawn by the childcare centre director, which listed when female staff were allowed to marry and have children.

The woman's case has highlighted the unsettling practice of some Japanese companies where they dictate when a female employee is allowed to marry and have children, depending on the level of seniority.

As per the report, the woman's experiences came to light after her husband wrote a letter to Mainich Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers. The couple even went and apologised to the director. But, the husband claimed that his wife was scolded for 'selfishly' breaking the rule of the centre.

A government survey in 2015 revealed that half of the Japanese working women suffered some kind of harassment after becoming pregnant and one in five dismissed from their job.